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AUGUSTINE HEARD 

1785-1868 

From a painting by William Morris Hunt 



AUGUSTINE HEARD 



AND 



HIS FRIENDS 



By THOMAS FRANKLIN WATERS 



1916 



F 






NEWCOMB & GAUSS 

Printers 

Salem, Massachusetts 



^/// 



7 



PREFACE. 

The most precious and inspiring heritage of any com- 
munity is the memory of the Hves of the good and great 
men and women who were born there. Ipswich is particu- 
larly fortunate in her inheritance. Some of her citizens 
won high renown in the early days of the Colony as 
statesmen and soldiers; some have attained eminence in 
the learned professions or in mercantile life ; many have 
left the impress of their strong, clean lives. 

Singularly enough three sons of Ipswich of the finest 
eminence are scarcely known today, save their names 
and a few great deeds. Augustine Heard is remembered 
gratefully as the founder of the Public Library. Joseph 
Green Cogswell is known only as the teacher of the 
Round Hill School. Daniel Treadwell, whose generous 
bequest has secured to the Library an ample endowment, 
is only a name. 

For many years, it has seemed to me a public mis- 
fortune that these men should have so little honorable 
recognition, and equally unfortunate that no way was 
open to secure to them their just due. Happily, by the 
kindness of the Heard family, the opportunity has been 
afforded me recently of making a careful study of their 
family papers. Such wealth of material was discovered 
that the hitherto unknown Augustine Heard stood forth 
an imposing figure, brave, winsome, generous, beloved 
and honored by the men of his own time, and worthy of 
the admiration of future generations. 

Naught remained to me but to tell the story of this fine 
life, and to repeat the narratives of his two contempo- 
raries. Forty years ago the "Life of Joseph Green Cogs- 
well as Sketched in His Letters," by Anna Eliot Ticknor, 
daughter of George Ticknor, was printed by subscription 
and a small edition was distributed privately to his 



4 PREFACE 

friends. A copy of this work, which had been tucked 
away in a corner of the Library and long forgotten, sup- 
plemented by Thomas Wentworth Higginson's essay, 
"Gottingen and Harvard a Century Ago," in his "Car- 
lyle's Laugh and other Surprises," and Thomas Gold Ap- 
pleton's story of the Round Hill School, furnished ma- 
terial for the brief sketch of Mr. Cogswell. 

The "Memoir of Daniel Treadwell," by his friend. Dr. 
Morrill Wyman, published in the "Memoirs of the Ameri- 
can Academy of Arts and Sciences," in 1888, afforded the 
welcome material for the third biographical paper. Dr. 
Wyman quoted freely from Prof. Treadwell's Autobi- 
ography. Though diligent search has been made in the 
Ipswich Library, and the Libraries of Harvard Univer- 
sity and the Boston Atheneum, no trace of this document 
has been found, a matter of regret as it might have 
thrown more light on his boyhood and young manhood in 
the town of his birth. 

The Trustees of the Ipswich Public Library, recog- 
nizing the publication of this book as a just and long 
deferred tribute to the founders, have generously pro- 
vided the necessary funds. 



I. 

THE NEIGHBORHOOD 

In the last decade of the eighteenth century, a singu- 
larly interesting group of young lads was growing up in 
a quiet neighborhood of Ipswich, known familiarly as 
the "South Side." The most conspicuous family was that 
of Joseph Dana, Pastor of the South Church, who lived 
in the comfortable dwelling on the turn of the road." He 
was a Yale graduate of 1760, a man of scholarly tastes, 
a writer of excellent hymns, fond of music, and so highly 
esteemed for his ministerial gifts that he received the de- 
gree of Doctor of Divinity from Harvard in 1801. His 
wife was Mary, daughter of Daniel Staniford, who had 
taken his degree at Harvard in 1738, and taught the 
Grammar School before turning to mercantile life. He 
died in 1757, leaving a widow and seven young children, 
but within a year, the widow Mary Staniford became the 
wife of Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, Pastor of the First 
Church, and her sons and daughters grew to manhood 
and womanhood in the fine intellectual atmosphere of 
the Manse. 

Three children came to the Dana household, Mary, 
Joseph and Daniel; and by a second marriage, another 
son, Samuel, and four daughters were added to the fam- 
ily circle. Mary became the wife of Major Thomas Burn- 
ham, a Harvard graduate of 1772, who left his school- 
room for a place in the Revolutionary army, and after 
the war continued his work as a pedagogue for many 
years. 

Daniel inherited his father's literary tastes. He began 
Latin at eight and Greek at nine, and at twelve was read- 

* Now owned and occupied by Mr. Frank T. Goodhue. 



6 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

ing Seneca's Morals as a pastime. Under their father's 
instruction, Joseph and Daniel were fitted for advanced 
standing in Dartmouth, entering in the second term of 
the Sophomore year and graduating with honor in 1788. 
They kept a school for young ladies a while, but Daniel 
soon went to Exeter and taught two years in the Acade- 
my. Returning to Ipswich he was the teacher of the 
Grammar School, while studying divinity with his fa- 
ther. After a successful pastorate in Newburyport, he 
was elected President of Dartmouth College in 1820, but 
his delicate health was unequal to the strain, and he was 
obliged to resign after a few months. His resignation 
was accepted with great reluctance but his decision was 
made and after a period of rest he resumed his work in 
the ministry in Londonderry and Newburyport.^ His 
brother Joseph was a college professor at Athens, Ohio. 
His younger brother, Samuel, was graduated at Harvard 
in 1796 and had a long and useful pastorate in Marble- 
head. 

Dr. Dana received into his family a number of young 
men for preparation for the ministry. It was an inspir- 
ing group, enlivened by the keen wit of Sarah Dana, 
beautiful and brilliant, who became the wife of the mer- 
chant, Israel Thorndike, of Beverly, and the center of an 
admiring circle in Boston society. Abigail, Miss Nabby, 
as she was called, preserved the scholarly traditions of 
the family by teaching school in the upper northwest 
chamber. They were all fine musicians, and singing and 
merrymaking furnished welcome diversion from the so- 
ber hours of study. 

Among the young students of divinity was Joseph Mc- 
Kean, son of William McKean and Sarah Manning, and 
grandson of Dr. Joseph Manning. He was born in Ips- 
wich on April 19th, 1776, and very likely in his grand- 
father's house, as Mr. McKean seems to have had no 
residence here at the time. He was graduated from Har- 
vard in 1794, taught the Grammar School two years in 

* See Life of Daniel Dana, D. D., by members of his family — 1866. 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS .7 

the recentlj'" erected hip-roofed school-house, which then 
stood on the corner of County Road and Argilla Road, en- 
tered the ministry and while pastor in Milton, Mass., 
married Amy Swasey, daughter of Major Joseph Swasey 
of the Swasey Tavern. Failing health obliged him to re- 
sign his pastorate in 1803. He turned to legal studies, 
was elected to the Legislature from Boston, and appar- 
ently was drawn to a political career. He declined the 
Hollis Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Phil- 
osophy, which was tendered him by the Harvard Cor- 
poration in 1807, but in 1809, with health much restored, 
he accepted the Boylston Professorship of Rhetoric and 
Oratory. The College of New Jersey -conferred the de- 
gree of S. T. D. in 1814 ; Alleghany College, the degree of 
L. L. D. in 1817. 

Recurrence of ill health compelled a voyage to the West 
Indies, but he sank rapidly and died at Havana on 
March 17, 1818 in his forty-second year. He founded the 
Porcellian Club at Harvard in 1791, and an imposing 
gate, the McKean Gate, has been erected by the Club as a 
memorial of his worth. His portrait hangs in the parlor 
of the House of the Historical Society, bearing the in- 
scription : Vir celeberrimus, optimus, carissimus. 

The old Crompton Inn stood in the fine open field, op- 
posite the Heard mansion. It was a noted hostelry in its 
day, and Judge Sewall frequently tarried there. The 
savour of its good cheer still abides in his note in his 
diary, "ate roost fowl at Crompton's." It was owned and 
occupied afterward by Col. John Choate, soldier at Louis- 
bourg, a prominent leader in the Land Bank controversy, 
and Judge of the Sessions Court. The stone bridge, built 
in 1764, was named in his honor. Hon. Stephen Choate 
succeeded in the ownership and his son, Amos, was an- 
other member of the group who attained honor and use- 
fulness. He was a Harvard graduate of 1795, a teacher 
of the Grammar School, and Register of Deeds of Essex 
County for many years. 

Capt. Jonathan Ingersoll made his home in the gam- 



8 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

brel roofed house, next north of the Savings Bank, where 
his son, Jonathan, Jr., was born in 1776. He completed 
his course at Harvard in the summer of 1798, and was 
appointed an instructor, but his promising career was 
cut off by death within a few months. 

Joseph Cogswell, the son of Francis Cogswell and 
Anstice Manning, the sister of Mrs. McKean, was born 
on the 27th of September, 1786. His grandfather. Dr. 
Joseph Manning, died on May 8th, 1784, and bequeathed 
the homestead' to his daughter, Mrs. Cogswell. It became 
the home of the Cogswells and Joseph was born, no 
doubt, under its roof. Daniel Treadwell, the son of Capt. 
Jabez Treadwell and his wife, Elizabeth Dodge, was born 
on October 10th, 1791, in their homestead' on the way 
to "Old England." Augustine, son of John and Sally 
Heard, was born on March 30th, 1785. These three boys 
lived near each other, played together, went to school to- 
gether and died within four years of each other, each 
having attained more than four score years. One of 
them had a brilliant career as mariner and merchant, one 
won high renown in scholastic pursuits, one became a dis- 
tinguished inventor and Rumford Professor at Harvard. 
Two of them joined in a benefaction to their native town 
of perpetual and immeasurable value. Mr. Heard never 
married, and neither of the others left any heir. Their 
lives deserve remembrance because of their pure and high 
purpose, their zealous endeavor after noble ends, their 
great and enduring contributions to the welfare of pos- 
terity. 

* On the site now occupied by the residence of Mr. Ernest E. Currier. 
' Near the site of the residence of the late Ephralm Fellows, now owned 
and occupied by Mrs. Charles Smith. 




JOHN HEARD 

1744-1834 

From an original portrait by Stuart 



II. 

AUGUSTINE HEARD. 

It rarely happens that in a single family the account 
books, memoranda of passing events, personal and busi- 
ness correspondence of a hundred years are preserved, and 
it is yet more rare that such a long and continuous record 
happens in the case of lives that are in themselves note- 
worthy. Fortunately, John Heard, the father of Augus- 
tine, was a large figure in our Town and County life for 
many years. He was a representative merchant who 
pursued the methods of business that were common in 
his day. He had large dealings with the West Indies and 
China. His family ties connected him with many of his 
townsfolk. His immediate family was very interesting. 
For many years his home was the modest dwelling which 
was removed^ about the end of the century when he built 
the fine mansion, still occupied by his descendants. 

He married Elizabeth Ann Story, daughter of William 
Story, Esq., in October, 1766. 

Joanna was born June 21, 1768. 

Elizabeth was born Feb. 16, 1771 ; died April, 1771. 

Elizabeth was born May 15, 1772 ; died July 6, 1773. 

Mary was born May 27, 1773 ; died Oct. 9, 1795. 

John was born Jan. 12, 1775. 

The mother died on June 26, 1775, five months after 
baby John was born. Mr. Heard married on Feb. 9, 1777, 
Sally Staniford, a younger sister of Mary, the wife of 
Dr. Dana. 

Their children were : 

Daniel Staniford, born Dec. 3, 1778. 

Sally, born Aug. 3, 1780; died May 22, 1801. 

1 The Caldwell homestead for many years, near the Cogswell School 
House. 






10 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

Elizabeth, born March 26, 1782 ; died June 20, 1805. 

Margaret or Peggy, born Aug. 26, 1783. 

Augustine, born March 30, 1785. 

Charles, born Dec. 28, 1786. 

Hannah Staniford, born June 3, 1789. 

Mary, born July 24, 1796. 

Mrs. Heard died on the 12th of September, following 
the birth of Mary, named for the elder Mary, who had 
died on Oct. 9, 1795. Martha Staniford, a younger sis- 
ter of Mrs. Heard, apparently came into the family to 
care for the little ones and remained there all her life. 

William Story owned the distillery on Turkey Shore, 
and Mr. Heard was probably associated with him, as he 
bought a half interest in 1770, and eventually became sole 
owner. The business was profitable and was an import- 
ant industrial asset of the town. A considerable fleet 
of square riggers and schooners sailed regularly from 
Ipswich to the West Indies, carrying out cargoes of lum- 
ber and fish, principally, and returning with molasses for 
the distillery, sugar, coffee and delicacies for the use of 
the town. 

During the Revolution, Mr. Heard bought the interest of 
many of the Ipswich sailors, who belonged to the crews 
of the privateers which fitted from Salem, Newburyport 
and Gloucester. He contributed toward the outfit of the 
"General Stark" of Gloucester and armed and equipped 
his own brig "John." He shared in the general prosperity 
which attended the revival of commerce after the Revo- 
lution and owned under his own name, or with Capt. 
Ephraim Kendall and Capt. Jonathan Ingersoll, his busi- 
ness associates, a large fleet which sailed to Maryland and 
Virginia with trading ventures as well as to the West 
Indian ports. 

He served as Coroner for many years and was actively 
interested in the heated political campaigns in the early 
years of the nineteenth century. He was elected State 
Senator in 1803, succeeding his neighbor, Hon. Stephen 
Choate; was appointed a Session Justice of the Circuit 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 11 

Court of Common Pleas, which performed the functions 
of the later Board of County Commissioners, in 1814, and 
Chief Justice in 1819. He was chosen a Presidential 
Elector in 1 820 and was a delegate to the Convention for 
revising the Constitution. 

Beyond question, he was a broad-minded, strong-mind- 
ed man. He shared the enthusiasm for education, which 
his wife, Sally Staniford, presumably brought into the 
home. Young John was sent to school to John Hart when 
he was six years old, an unusual privilege, as small chil- 
dren generally went to the dame schools. Joanna en- 
joyed the advantages of Madame Rogers's school for 
young ladies, which had considerable repute in its day. 
It was kept in her house, which stood on the site now oc- 
cupied by the meeting house of the South church. Mary, 
or Polly, as she was called, received instruction in music 
by George Stacey in the year 1784. It was a home of re- 
finement to which young men of culture were naturally 
attracted and in due time, in 1788, Joanna became the 
wife of Asa Andrews, a young lawyer of the Harvard 
class of 1783, who had established a practice here and 
bought the house^ by the Mill dam in 1794. Hannah 
Staniford married Prof. Sidney Willard of Harvard in 
1789, and Margaret married Dr. Thomas Manning in 
1807. 

From the year 1788 when the Danas came home with 
their Dartmouth degrees, the homes of the neighborhood 
were aglow with a fine enthusiasm for the highest edu- 
cation. The record is really remarkable. Joseph 
McKean completed his course in 1794 and John Heard, 
the oldest son, and Amos Choate took their degrees in 

1795. Samuel Dana was graduated from Harvard in 

1796, Jonathan Ingersoll and Nathaniel Lord, Jr., in 
1798, Levi Frisbee, son of the Pastor of the First 
Church, in 1802, Joseph Cogswell in 1806, and in 
1810, John Dudley and Edward, sons of Asa and Joanna 
Andrews, and Joseph Swasey Farley, son of Jabez and 

' Now owned and occupied by Mr. Clark O. Abel. 



12 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

grandson of Major Joseph Swasey of the Swasey Tav- 
ern, completed their studies at Harvard. George Wash- 
ington Heard, the youngest son, was graduated in 1812, 
and John Heard Manning, son of Dr. Thomas and Mar- 
garet in 1832. 

Daniel Treadwell was a neighbor and friend. The Danas 
and Heards were cousins and the two families were much 
together. As school mates and college mates all these 
bright and promising lads were welcome guests in the 
great rooms of the Heard mansion. In later years the 
young Andrewses and Mannings came to their grandfa- 
ther's. Thus for many years this remarkably brilliant 
company of young people brought life and gaiety into this 
home. 

Mr. Heard's deep and generous interest in educational 
affairs led him to many kindly offices. He paid all the 
bills of a nephew in Dartmouth and a poor theological 
student at Bangor. He was an annual subscriber to the 
Society for Promoting Theological Education in Har- 
vard and to the American Society for Educating Pious 
Youth. He was one of the proprietors of Ipswich Acad- 
emy. In accordance with the wish of his friend and 
neighbor, Francis Cogswell, he became the guardian of 
his sons, Francis and Joseph. He encouraged his sons 
to choose professional careers. John became a lawyer 
and George completed a course in medicine with Dr. 
Jackson and Dr. Manning and received his degree of M. 
D. in 1815 though he never practised as a physician. 
There can be no doubt that he would have been glad to 
send his other sons, Daniel Staniford and Augustine to 
college, had their minds so inclined. He died on Aug. 11, 
1834 at the great age of ninety. 

Daniel Heard chose a mercantile life, influenced no 
doubt by his father's long and prosperous career, and his 
own acquaintance from boyhood with shipping and com- 
merce. He was already engaged in shipping ventures 
from Boston in 1795, when he was only seventeen years 
old, under the firm name of Frankford and Heard. In 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 13 

that year they made a modest "venture" of $150 in mer- 
chandise in the brig "Elizabeth" on a voyage to Esse- 
quibo. Other small ventures followed in brigs and 
schooners sailing to Demerara, Surinam and other ports. 
In Jan. 1801 he sailed as super-cargo of the ship Ganges 
on a voyage to India and China, taking with him three 
kegs of Spanish dollars, containing $4260. His father, 
Mr. John Heard, advanced $1800, his uncle. Dr. Josiah 
Smith, $1000; the balance was ventured by himself, his 
brother John and other relatives. By an understanding 
with the owners, he left the "Ganges" and took passage 
on the "Arab", Capt. Timothy Bryant, at the Cape of 
Good Hope. He became ill at Calcutta and died at Can- 
ton. Capt. Bryant wrote the sad news of his death and 
that a stone had been erected over his grave at Whampoa, 
with the inscription: "Here lies the body of Daniel S. 
Heard, late Super-Cargo of the American ship Arab of 
Boston. He died on the 13th of December, 1801. Aet. 23." 
At this time, Augustine Heard was a student at Phil- 
lips Academy, Exeter, where he was entered in 1799, at 
the age of fourteen. We can imagine that he studied 
penmanship and bookkeeping, for his handwriting to the 
end of his life was beautifully clear and delicate, and his 
business accounts were marvels of neatness. He inher- 
ited from his father a methodical carefulness in the pre- 
servation of letters and documents. For more than sixty 
years he filed his letters in bundles, each bearing the date, 
name of writer, and a frequent catch word indicating the 
contents. His log-books and journals of voyages, with 
copies of his own and his owner's letters, his invoices, 
and accounts of sales and purchases, were carefully pre- 
served. His voluminous correspondence, as a member of 
the great firm of Russell & Co., and then as head of the 
house of Augustine Heard & Co., was filed with the same 
method. Thus, unconscious of the value of his methodi- 
cal routine, he preserved the record of his long and busy 
life, the chronicles of his sea-faring, his mercantile ca- 
reer, his friendships, his joys and griefs, and his gener- 



14 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

ous gifts. Yet he was the most modest of men. He made 
no record of heroic deeds and masterful leadership of 
which we know in part only by the letters and remem- 
brance of others, and much that he preserved he would 
have destroyed if he had thought that it would ever be 
open to the eye of a kindly seeker after the forgotten 
things and the secret things of a noble life, which are too 
fine to be allowed to sink into oblivion. 

A letter from Mr. Ebenezer Francis, one of the prin- 
cipal merchants of Boston, to Augustine, dated August 
14, 1803, shows that he was then in his employ. Two 
years later his business ability was so well developed that 
his employer sent him to sea as super-cargo. He was only 
twenty years old, but Mr. Francis had perfect confidence 
in his competence for the task. In those days, a super- 
cargo was a business agent, or clerk to the captain, to 
whom was entrusted the selling of the cargo and the pur- 
chase of goods for the return shipment. However full the 
instructions, which were given him by the owner, during 
a four or five months' voyage to Calcutta or Canton, new 
and unexpected conditions might arise in the market. 
When he sailed, the latest advices as to prices, etc., were 
several months old, and when he arrived in the distant 
ports of India or China, his market quotations were near- 
ly a year behind. The super-cargo, acting with the cap- 
tain, was obliged to use his own judgment, therefore, as 
to the disposition of the goods in the ship and the selec- 
tion and purchase of the return cargo, which would net 
the best prospective gain to the owners. If the ship ar- 
rived at the home port when there was a ready market 
for her valuable cargo, and it was sold at a good profit, 
the reputation of the super-cargo as a skilfull trader and 
buyer was enhanced. If the market was depressed, or 
the goods proved unsalable, his ability was called in ques- 
tion. Thus there was a large element of uncertainty 
which can hardly be realized today when the market con- 
ditions of the whole world are reported daily by telegraph 
in every great commercial center, and the merchant and 



I 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 15 

his agent in a foreign land are in as close touch as Boston 
and New York. 

The instructions of Mr. Francis show the responsibility 
which was put upon the young super-cargo. 

Boston, Nov. 20, 1805. 
Mr. Augustine Heard, 

Sir: Enclosed you have invoice and bill lading for 
ninety-five pecolls of pepper shipt on board the ship 
"Eliza," Capt. Charles Smith, bound for Leghorn and 
consigned to you, being on our joint account and risk. 
In case you go on to India in any Vessell, you will take my 
part of the proceeds of this pepper with you and invest 
the same for my account — should you return to this 
country direct, bring the proceeds in opium or some 
other valuable goods that you think may produce a profit. 
In case you go on to Calcutta in the "Hector" your privi- 
lege will be more than you will have funds to fill up with 
advantage. I authorize you to draw on me at 30 or 60 
days sight for any sum not exceeding $5000, provided 
you can obtain Dollars at or under five per cent, advance. 
Your friend and well-wisher, 

Eben Francis. 

The super-cargo was allowed a small commission on 
his sales and purchases, and had the privilege of a certain 
number of tons, which he might utilize with his own ven- 
ture. The allusion to this privilege in the letter of in- 
structions reveals the merchant's liberal dealing with his 
young friend. 

The ship "Eliza" is probably identical with the Ipswich 
ship of the same name, owned by the Treadwells and aft- 
erwards in charge of Capt. Moses Treadwell which was at 
Leghorn and other Mediterranean ports in 1807 and the 
following years, and a little of the home feeling attached 
to the good ship in which he made his first voyage. Mr. 
Heard's memoranda of his voyages shows that he left 
the "Eliza" at Leghorn and sailed for Calcutta in the 
brig "Hector." 

He was at home in the early spring of 1807. In March 
his brother, Charles, wrote Augustine that Mr. Thorndike, 
a wealthy Beverly merchant, wished him to go as super- 



16 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

cargo to Leghorn. He accepted the offer and sailed from 
Beverly for Smyrna on Monday, March 30, 1807, in the 
"Betsy," a small topsail schooner of 72 tons, of which he 
was super-cargo. It was rather a critical time for a 
Mediterranean voyage. Spain, driven to desperation by 
Napoleon's courses, was about declaring war against 
France. England was ready to aid Spain in the struggle 
with her foe. Commerce was sadly disturbed. 

Heavy gales burst upon the little craft and on the sec- 
ond day out the foremast was found to be sprung and re- 
pairs were necessary. Arriving in the Mediterranean, at 
8 o'clock in the morning of May 4th, they were boarded 
by H. M. Sloop "Serret", and forbidden to go or trade 
from one port to another of France, Spain and their al- 
lies. At 10 A. M. two Spanish privateers boarded and 
overhauled the ship's papers and seized some rigging and 
other small articles. On the following day another Span- 
ish privateer was met and on May 10th, an English frig- 
ate overhauled them, but allowed them to proceed. 

Young Heard disposed of his cargo at Leghorn and 
sailed for home July 8th. The American frigate "Con- 
stitution" was spoken on July 15 ; on July 16th they were 
brought to by two shots from a Lateen boat under Eng- 
lish colors and obliged to lower a boat and carry two casks 
of water to the privateer. The vessel sprung a leak and 
four feet of water was found in the hold. Their meagre 
sea diet was enriched by a fine store of cod fish and hali- 
but, which were caught on the Grand Banks, a friendly 
fisherman giving them sufficient salt to save their fish. 
They arrived in Beverly on Sunday, October 11th. 

Two months later, Dec. 1807, Mr. Heard sailed as joint 
super-cargo of the ship "William," Capt. Noah Emery, 
bound for Calcutta, in the employ of Mr. Pickering Dodge 
of Salem, and arrived home in Nov., 1808. He sailed 
again in the ship "William" in April, 1809 on a voyage to 
Canton. In June, 1810, he sailed as super-cargo in the 
brig "Caravan" owned by Pickering Dodge of Salem, 
James Gilchrist, master, for Calcutta. In the kegs of 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 17 

specie on this voyage, Wm. Gray, known commonly as 
"Billy Gray," shipped $10,000. Mr. John Heard, father 
of Augustine, shipped $4000, his brother John $2209; 
Moses Treadwell $1100; Captain Ephraim Kendall 
$500 and Richard Lakeman $400. Upon the return 
of the "Caravan," Nov. 30, 1811, Mr. Dodge appoint- 
ed Mr. Heard master and super-cargo of the same 
vessel for a second voyage to Calcutta. This proved 
to be, perhaps, the most eventful and memorable of 
all his voyages. It was his first experience as master 
of a large ship and super-cargo as well. Apart from the 
valuable cargo entrusted to his care, his treasure chest 
contained in specie and bills of exchange some $40,000 
and the cargo was valued at the same figure. Salem and 
Boston merchants sent large sums, his father and brother 
$2000 each. Capt. Ammi R. Smith, Dr. Thomas Man- 
ning, Capt. Moses Treadwell, Miss R. Kendall, Capt. 
Richard Lakeman, M. Staniford, presumably his aunt 
Martha, made smaller ventures. He was laden with com- 
missions from friends to buy cashmere and camel's hair 
shawls, two large "Palampons" for the covering of a large 
bed, a netting covering for a field bed top, and three of 
the Francis children gave him a dollar each for invest- 
ment. Nothing could afford surer evidence of his genial 
and kindly disposition than his attention to these triflles. 
But the memorable incident of this voyage is the fact 
that he took with him as passengers the famous mission- 
aries. Rev. Adoniram Judson and Rev. Samuel Newell 
and their wives. Judson and Newell, Samuel Nott, Gor- 
don Hall and Luther Rice, had been ordained as ministers 
and missionaries, the first sent by the Congregational 
churches of America, with solemn and impressive exer- 
cises, at the old Tabernacle meeting house in Salem on 
Feb. 6, 1812. The addition of two ministers and their 
wives to the ship's company meant not only a very incon- 
venient overcrowding of the cabin, but a possible check 
upon the free life on ship-board by the extreme odor of 
sanctity. The bluff young captain, now twenty-seven 



18 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

years old, and his officers, may have faced the prospect of 
a four months' passage under such conditions with mild 
dismay. The decks were laden with hen coops and hog 
pens and their provender, that necessary fresh food 
might be provided for the cabin table. The fussy details 
of the owner's final letter are very amusing. 

-the yellow corn is for the fowls, the old white 



corn for the hogs. . . . [The missionaries] are to dine 
in the cabin. I hope you will find them pleasant compan- 
ions, give a fresh dish once a week or oftener, if practi- 
cable, and puddings, rice, etc. ; be as careful as possible of 
the water, as your ship's company is large and consider- 
able live stock to subsist, but hope you will be fortunate 
enough to catch some near the line, avoid speaking any 
Vessell on your outward or homeward passages. 

Your friend, 

Pickering Dodge. 

The war of 1812 seemed inevitable though hostilities 
had not begun. The return passage with a cargo of sugar, 
gums and drugs and Indian fabrics, was likely to be at- 
tended with much risk. Mr. Dodge instructed the cap- 
tain : — 

Proceed with return cargo to Pernambuco and sell if 
you can get good prices, then clear for Gothenburg where 
you will find additional orders from me. I allow you sail- 
ing the brig and transacting all business, 2 per cent, on 
sales of goods you carry out, and 2 per cent, on amount 
invested in Calcutta with $22 a month as sailing master 
and six tons privilege. 

The "Caravan" sailed on Tuesday, Feb. 18th, 1812. A 
great company gathered on the wharf and engaged in 
solemn religious services, bidding the missionaries and 
sailors "God-speed" as the sails were loosed and the ship 
moved slowly into the stream. Peculiar pathos attached 
to the departure of Mrs. Newell, a girl bride who was 
only eighteen years and four months old on the day she 
sailed, and as the event proved, was never to see home and 
friends again. 






AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 19 

She kept a journal on the voyage which abounds in in- 
teresting details. She passed the first week at sea in her 
berth, the victim of sea-sickness. On Feb 24th, the brig 
sprung a leak, so serious that the pumps could not free 
her and Captain Heard felt that the danger of sinking 
was so great that he frankly told his passengers that only 
the hand of Providence could save them. He altered his 
course and made for St. Jago but happily, when the sail- 
ors were nearly exhausted, the leak was discovered and 
stopped and the course was resumed. Services of wor- 
ship were conducted in the cabin on Sunday mornings at 
which the missionaries preached. "The captain and offi- 
cers favor us with attendance." 

On March 11th, with a favorable wind, she notes that 
the ship was making nearly seven miles an hour. Her 
sea appetite gave relish to the plain sea fare. 

March 14. We have occasionally flour bread, nuts, ap- 
ple puddings, apple pies, baked and stewed beans twice a 
week, fowls, hams, etc. I have been agreeably disappoint- 
ed respecting our manner of living at sea, though we are 
not free from inconvenience by any means. 

A singularly exasperating experience occurred on 
March 17th. A vessel passed so near that the men could 
be seen on the decks and the letters could have been sent 
home easily. But the captain had received orders not 
even to speak another ship and he kept the letter of his 
commands. The coffee and tea without milk remained 
unpalatable on March 23d, but the water-porridge night 
and morning and the occasional chocolate were very 
agreeable. By the kindness of the captain a little piece 
of the gangway was taken into her state room making 
it more comfortable, but there were frequent floodings in 
heavy seas and much labor at the pumps. "An old, leaky 
vessel," she writes with spirit on May 8th. Precious 
stores of preserves and other delicacies had been taken 
from home, but the sweet meats moulded. In May the 
ginger bread, made by the Salem ladies, experienced in 
providing for such voyages, still remained good, but Mr. 



20 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

Pearson's crackers were her chief joy. At last, on June 
12th, after "nothing but sky and water for 114 days (?), 
we, this morning, heard the joyful exclamation of 'land, 
land!'" 

The "Caravan" arrived at Calcutta on June 12th, after 
a passage of a hundred and fifteen days. Captain Heard's 
letter to the owner on July 13th informed him that the 
scarcity of money and fear of an American war, com- 
bined with other circumstances to render it for the pres- 
ent totally impracticable to negotiate bills on any terms 
whatever. The cargo was found to be in poor condition 
and sales were effected with great difficulty. 

I have now to inform you that I am ordered by Govt, 
to carry the missionary passengers, who came out in the 
"Caravan" back to America, and a port clearance will not 
be granted until I have given security to that effect. 

A week after their arrival, Mr. Judson and his associ- 
ates, hoping apparently that the harsh refusal of the 
British authorities to allow them to land would soon be 
recalled, addressed a letter of thanks to the captain. 



Calcutta 19th, June, 1812. 
Capt. A. Heard. 

Dear Sir : We cannot leave you without expressing our 
gratitude to you for the unremitting kindness and polite 
attentions which you have shown us during our passage 
from Salem to this place. 

We are sensible that you have done everything in your 
power to make us comfortable and happy, even at the ex- 
pense of your own convenience. 

We wish that we could make some suitable return for 
your goodness, but as this [is] far out of our power we can 
only express our feelings. I assure you, dear sir, of our 
most grateful and affectionate remembrance and our 
earnest desires and prayers for your safe return and for 
your prosperity and happiness. 

Adoniram Judson, Nancy Judson, 
Samuel Newell, Harriet Newell. 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 21 

The missionaries were still his prospective guests on 
July 14th when he wrote to his father : 

Our Christian missionaries do not meet with a very- 
favorable reception, being ordered by the government to 
return to America in the same vessel that they came in — 
so that I am in a fair way of having the benefit and pleas- 
ure of their company for another passage. 

Another letter to his father, dated Sept. 1st, contains a 
pleasant allusion to them. 

Our Missionary passengers have obtained permission 
to proceed to the Isle of France, instead of going to Amer- 
ica, which will deprive me of the pleasure of their society 
on my homeward passage. 

Notwithstanding these very agreeable personal rela- 
tions, the Captain's plans for departure were seriously 
embarrassed by the presence of the missionaries, and 
with evident relief he wrote to Mr. Dodge on Sept. 5th : 

I have the pleasure to inform you that after repeated 
applications by our missionary passengers and their 
friends belonging to Serampore, they have obtained per- 
mission to proceed to the Isle of France, provided they do 
it without delay. Mr. Newhall and wife have already 
gone and Mr. Judson follows shortly ; we shall now be al- 
lowed port clearance, unembarrassed by the evils with 
which we have been threatened. 

Mrs. Newell died at the Isle of France on Nov. 30th, 
1812, at the age of nineteen years, one month and twenty 
days. The whole Christian world grieved over her un- 
timely decease. A sketch of the life of Harriet Atwood 
Newell, with her journal and letters and memorial ser- 
mons, was prepared by Prof. Leonard Woods of Ando- 
ver. Fifty years ago it was still found on the parlor tables 
of multitudes of New England homes and the name of 
Captain Augustine Heard became a household word. 

Availing himself of the latitude of his instructions, 
Captain Heard made port at San Salvador, now known 



22 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

usually as Bahia on the Brazil coast. He wrote from 
Pernambuco on June 16th, 1814, to his brother John, in- 
forming him of his arrival there three months before. 

On arrival at St. Salvador, being disappointed in my 
expectations, I embarked for Rio de Janeiro; in both 
places and on my passage I passed upward of four months. 
. . . The news of your embargo has prevented me from 
procuring passage ... so fearful of taking an Ameri- 
can passenger or anything that belongs to one. 

The disappointments and difficulties that he alludes to 
so lightly were very serious matters. Rather than risk 
capture by a British man-of-war, he sold the "Caravan" 
at San Salvador, but arranged for the trans-shipment of 
a portion of the cargo at least to Pernambuco. Some very 
interesting details of his experiences are related by Capt. 
R. B. Forbes,^ a friend of many years, as he had heard 
them from Captain Heard's own lips. 

When hard pushed to give some of his experiences 
with pirates or slavers the best we could ever extract 
from Captain Heard was the story of his passage along 
the coast of Brazil in a slaver during our last war with 
Great Britain. 

Having made an outport of Brazil, with little chance of 
getting safely home through the line of English cruisers, 
he had sold his ship and cargo and waited a long time in 
vain for a chance to reach Boston. At last an African 
slaver with a full living cargo put in for water and Cap- 
tain Heard, in despair of anything better, put on his 
shabbiest clothes and in the guise of a shipwrecked mari- 
ner went on board and drove the hardest possible bargain 
for his passage to the nearest considerable sea-port. Tak- 
ing what good bills on London he could buy, he was still 
obliged to carry with him a large sum in gold, and his 
hardihood and ingenuity were put to a severe test in get- 
ting his heavy sea chest hoisted up and lifted with his own 
hands to a bunk in the corner of the quarter deck, where 
he slept upon it. 

His courage and stoicism were tried to their utmost by 
the sights and sounds which haunted him from the cargo 

» Personal Reminiscences. Second Edition. Boston, 1882; p. 397. 



; 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 23 

of living and dying wretches around him ; but this at last 
came to an end, and he told with much glee how, when he 
had his heavy trunk safely deposited in the office of the 
American consul at Rio Janeiro he called the captain of 
the slaver in to pay his scanty passage-money and, throw- 
ing the chest open, displayed its contents and paid the 
few coins out of its abundance which he had bargained 
for. The man's eyes opened wide, for as Captain Heard 
well knew when he embarked, a hundredth part of the 
contents would have tempted the scoundrel to cut his 
throat and throw him overboard. 

In his memorandum of voyages. Captain Heard simply 
mentions "the brig Henrietta, Portugese to Brazil, re- 
turned in 1815 in the brig Pilot to Philadelphia." He ar- 
rived in Philadelphia in late August, having been gone 
two years and eight months, during a considerable por- 
tion of which his family and business associates had 
known almost nothing of his whereabouts or the result of 
their financial ventures. The owner of the vessel, Mr. 
Pickering Dodge, commended his course under such try- 
ing circumstances and some of the heaviest consignees 
were greatly pleased. Two of them, however, Simon For- 
rester of Salem, and the widow of Capt. Emery had 
brought suit for recovery of damages, Forrester suing 
Mr. Dodge for $15,000 costs and damages and Mrs. Em- 
ery bringing suit against Captain Heard. This had been 
decided in her favor, but on appeal the higher court re- 
versed the decision. Forrester was non-suited as well. 
Mr. Francis, his old employer and constant friend, wrote 
to him : 

The suit of Mrs. Emery and Forrester was determined 
in your favor at Salem Court, and I am happy to say that 
not only the Court and jury justified you in law and 
equity, but every other honest, judicious person that 
heard the trial. 

The winter of 1815 was passed at home but in the fol- 
lowing spring the lure of the sea was too strong and he 
sailed as super-cargo of the brig "Hindu," Capt. David 



24 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

D. Pulcifer, on May 8, 1816, for Calcutta. He owned a 
quarter of the ship. The son of Peter C. Brooks, the Bos- 
ton merchant, sailed as passenger to assist and learn the 
business. Mr. Brooks shipped thirteen boxes, contain- 
ing 26,000 silver dollars, with the very complimentary let- 
ter: 

Boston, Dec. 26, 1815. 
Dear Sir: In the directing I have formerly given to 
super-cargoes I have generally referred them to the or- 
ders of some other shippers on whose judgment I could 
depend; but in this instance from the great confidence I 
have in you I have concluded to leave it wholly to yourself 
and have only to request that you will lay out the money 
in such goods as you think will afford the greatest profit. 
. . . .My son, who takes passage with you, will have 
a particular interest in one invoice of $20,000. 

It gives me great pleasure that my son is making this 
long voyage with gentlemen, in whom I have so much con- 
fidence as yourself and Capt. Pulcifer. 

Your friend, 

P. C. Brooks. 

Mr. Francis shipped $10,000, Patrick T. Jackson, $18,- 
000, Robert and John Hooper, $10,000, John Heard, Jr., 
$3500, George W. Heard, $2000. The specie shipments 
amounted to $131,000. The passage was made in 129 
days. 

Captain Heard acquired a quarter interest in the brig 
"Phoenix" and sailed from Boston for Rio Janeiro Sept. 
28, 1818. He was master and super-cargo and took out 
800 barrels of flour and 15 thousand ft. of pine boards, 
and returned with a cargo of coffee and hides to the same 
consignees, Mr. Francis, Mr. Wigglesworth and others. 
He arrived in Boston on March 3d, 1819, and sailed again 
on April 1st for Gibraltar, where the coffee was dis- 
charged. Loaded with wine, the "Phoenix" sailed for Rio 
Janeiro, where she arrived on August 3d, and sailed Sept. 
27th, 1819 in ballast for Calcutta and loaded for Boston, 
where she arrived on June 30th, 1820. 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 25 

His next voyage was in the brig "Gov. Endicott," Pick- 
ering Dodge, owner, of which he was captain and super- 
cargo. His constant following of the hard life of the 
sailor was now bringing him substantial returns, and his 
reputation for skilful selling and buying made his ser- 
vices in demand by the foremost merchants of Boston. 
Nathan Appleton shipped $4000 in his care, William Ap- 
pleton, $5000, William Lawrence, $3000, Robert G. Shaw, 
$3000. When he made up his cargo at Calcutta, he had 
purchased goods on his own account to the value of $20,- 
000, Nankeens, Pongees, Crepes, Damask Crepe dresses, 
shawls and scarfs, and he shipped as well on the ship 
"Arab," Isaiah Lewis, master, another invoice of $11,000, 
including blue and white dining sets, and stone ware, 
lacquered tea-caddies, sugar and tea. Singular interest 
attaches to Captain Heard's shipment by the "Arab." 
That good ship was built in the old shipyard now included 
in the Doctor Tucker lot in the year 1818 by William 
Dodge, a prosperous Ipswich merchant and ship owner. 
His old account book contains the full particulars of his 
hiring his "boss" shipbuilder from Medford, his repeated 
trips to the Linebrook woods for the finest oaks for keel- 
piece, knees and planks, his purchase of timber from 
many of the farms, and his hiring of the Ipswich ship- 
carpenters. Captain Isaiah Lewis sailed in command of 
the new ship, leaving his son in Ipswich in Mr. Dodge's 
care, for schooling in the Grammar school under Amos 
Choate. On his return. Captain Heard shipped a large 
invoice of his India goods on the schooner "Sarah," 
commanded by John Holmes Harris, a well known Ipswich 
mariner, to be sold at Curacoa, and other invoices were 
sent to Genoa. 

Some of the finest ships in the East India trade were 
now at Captain Heard's disposal. On May 3d, 1823, he 
sailed from Salem in Pickering Dodge's ship, "Bengal," 
having as passengers, Edward Hale, Esq., Secretary to 
Lord Amherst, Governor-General of India, Mr. Charles 
Mellis, Mrs. and Miss Van Schellenbeck, and a little girl 



26 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

of the same family.^ On July 26, 1824, he left Boston on 
a voyage to Canton in the ship "Packet," having a twelfth 
interest in ship and cargo. His log-book relates some un- 
usual incidents in the voyage. Under Oct 8th he entered, 
"came near taking my departure from the M. chains in a 
heavy lee lurch." His long entry under December 5th de- 
scribes the routine sea diet and the outbreak of sickness. 

Within the last 10 days two cases of scurvy have oc- 
curred on board. In the course of 10 voyages round the 
Cape of Good Hope, this is the first instance of this dis- 
ease that I have ever seen ; our living has been as good as 
I have ever known it on board ship. The people have been 
allowed puddings twice a week, beans twice a week and 
a fresh mess once a week (till now, when our stock is ex- 
hausted), they have been allowed three quarts of water, 
grog once a day, and as much vinegar as they wished and 
they have been kept all hands the whole of the passage, 
excepting where we have been in with the land. There 
has been a windsail down the forecastle during all the 
warm weather, the hatches have been off every day when 
the weather would permit, and from 30 to 100 buckets of 
water have been put down one of the pumps every day 
and pumped out after remaining 24 hours. It is true we 
have lacked fresh vegetables, which could not be procured 
at the time of year that we left home. For a week I have 
been administering nitre and vinegar, according to 
Thomas's directions, but so far it has not been so effectual 
as I anticipated. The ship anchored in Macao Roads De- 
cember 24th. We have now only three hands among a 
crew of 13 that are not affected with scurvy more or less. 
Two of them in a bad state. Distance sailed, 19,030 miles 
from Boston. 

On the return voyage the monotony of sea-life was bro- 
ken by overhauling his former ship, the "Bengal," Cap- 
tain Gale, from Calcutta, and sending a boat aboard. In 
Boston bay, on July 4th, in fog and hea\T squalls, the ship 
barely cleared the Scituate shore, being laid nearly on her 
beam-ends by the sail the captain put upon her. After 
a year at home, perhaps the longest interval of home life 
since he began his sea-faring, he took command of the 

^ The Salem Gazette, May 6, 1S23. 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 27 

"Packet" again in July, 1826, for a voyage to Genoa to 
dispose of a cargo of pepper. 

The "Emerald," Amethyst" and "Topaz" were built for 
a packet line between Boston and Liverpool, with accom- 
modations for passengers. As larger ships were needed 
for the increased ocean travel, these were utilized in the 
East India trade. The "Topaz" had been taken by pirates 
who swarmed in the China seas, looted and burnt. As 
these ships invariably carried more than a hundred thou- 
sand dollars in specie, beside the valuable cargo, they were 
a rich prize, and the freebooters in their swift vessels, 
manned with great crews, cruised in the track of the In- 
dia ships and frequently murdered the crews and de- 
stroyed the ships. The command of the "Emerald" was 
offered Capt. Heard by William Appleton, the managing 
owner. Her speed, her superior cabin accommodations, 
her armament, rendered necessarj' for self-defense, her 
tall spars and painted ports, rendered her ver>' attractive 
to merchants desiring safe and quick conveyance for their 
goods, and to those whose business affairs called them to 
Calcutta. The command of such a ship raised a captain to 
the highest pinnacle of his profession'. The "Emerald" 
sailed in the middle of June, 1827, with passengers and 
above $140,000 in specie, sent by a score of Boston mer- 
chants. She made her passage in 98 days to the Sand 
Heads and 105 to the city of Calcutta. Capt. Heard wrote 
the owners : 

The '"Emerald" deserves the high character she bears 
although I do not know that she sails much faster than the 
"Packet" — upon a wind she certainly does not. 

The ship's M. T. sail was never reef'd but one day . . . 
from the time of our leaving Boston to our arrival here. 
Our passengers were quiet and peaceable, though not as 
well-bred as could be desired. 

Joseph Lord, Jr., had provided the Captain with funds 
to purchase for him a dotted muslin long shawl with pahn 
leaf ends, one cape and collar, dotted muslin for a dress 

» CapUin R B. Forbes. Personal Reminiscences. 



28 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

and a piece of best quality "Chopas." He carried with 
him samples of fine muslin to guide his purchases in Cal- 
cutta for the ladies of the Boston families, in which he 
was a welcome guest, and these bits of muslin and lace 
are still folded in the letters of instructions written near- 
ly a century ago. His friends always relied upon his good 
nature and good taste for their shopping on the other side 
of the globe, and upon his return from his long voyages 
the Ipswich congregations on a pleasant Sunday were 
brilliant with the rich and beautiful shawls and delicate 
fabrics which came in his ship. 

He made a second voyage in the "Emerald" in 1828, 
which was spiced with danger sufficient to offset the plac- 
id record of the former. Captain R. B. Forbes in his Per- 
sonal Reminiscences, relates that Captain Heard admitted 
that a long, low piratical looking schooner had sailed 
about the "Emerald" for several hours and then conclud- 
ed to let him alone. But Captain Forbes declares that it 
was the common belief of the men on the coast, that the 
pirate fired a gun and ordered the ship to surrender. Cap- 
tain Heard had ordered the guns to be loaded and the crew 
to keep out of sight. At the summons of the pirate he 
hoisted his ensign and changed his course to run down to 
the schooner as if in obedience to the order. When he was 
close upon it he put the helm hard up and sent his ship 
crashing against her broadside and through her light hull, 
grinding her down beneath his keel. 

The "Emerald's" hair-breadth escape from shipwreck 
on her arrival off the Hoogly River is told in very graphic 
fashion by Capt. Forbes, in his reminiscences of Capt. 
Heard. 

He arrived off the Sand Heads in the hurricane sea- 
son, and after losing his best bower, was making sail to 
beat off shore when he luckily saw one of the pilot brigs, 
which in those days cruised off the port to supply pilots in 
those dangerous waters. The pilot swung himself on 
board at the risk of his life, and the moment he touched 
the deck, after casting an approving eye to the straining 
canvass, asked sharply: "Where is your bower anchor?" 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 29 

"Lost yesterday; we have only the small bower left." 
"How much water do you draw?" "Nineteen feet when on 
an even keel." (She was then lying over almost with her 
lee rail in the water) . "Well," replied the pilot, "we shall 
all be in hell before tomorrow morning; there is only 
eighteen feet on the bar, and no ship that was ever 
launched could claw off with this wind and sea — but," he 
hissed into the captain's ear, "there is one chance; send 
all the men you can spare aloft and shake a reef out of 
your topsails." The ship was already carrying more than 
she could bear safely but Captain Heard saw the point and 
was up to the occasion. They who have seen Augustine 
Heard in time of danger, and they alone, can conceive of 
the stillness which came over him when the crisis was at 
hand ; the greater the risk, the more quiet and unmoved 
he seemed. His dark eye never wavered for a moment, 
and his voice, always low, sank to a hoarse whisper as he 
softly gave the order to his astonished mate to make more 
sail. The reefs were shaken out, the good ship laid 
almost on her beam ends, thus drawing a few inches less 
water than when upright and with a thump or two she 
dragged through the sand bar and was soon anchored in 
the smooth waters of the Hooghly. 

A voyage in the brig "Omar" to Genoa, in 1829, com- 
pleted Captain Heard's active sea service. His career as 
a merchant was about beginning. Three Boston mercan- 
tile firms, Perkins and Co., Bryant and Sturgis, and Rus- 
sell & Co., had agencies or branch houses in China, which 
transacted a large and very profitable commission busi- 
ness, beside the buying and selling for the Boston estab- 
lishments. Mr. Samuel Russell was then in China, but 
his partner, Mr. Ammidon, had returned and as he did 
not care to bind himself for another period of residence 
in Canton, he entered into an arrangement with Captain 
Heard to go out in his place. Captain R. B. Forbes was 
about sailing for China in the new barque "Lintin," 
which was destined for the Lintin station to be used for 
storage and furnishing supplies to ships. The ship 
sailed on July 7th, 1830, and Captain Heard, Dr. Jennison 
and John M. Forbes, brother of the captain, were passen- 
gers. 



30 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

Capt. Forbes's Reminiscences relate that he was not in 
the best of health and observe : 

When about three weeks at sea I gave up the com- 
mand to Mr. Heard, who was like a fish out of water for 
want of employment. He very often had made himself 
busy in squally weather and I had jocosely threatened to 
put him in command unless he kept out of the way. He 
was on his way to join Mr. Samuel Russell at Canton un- 
der contract with Mr. Philip Ammidon, who did not want 
to go again ; but on arrival he was received as a partner 
and Mr. A. was released. John was going out to join the 
house of Russell & Co. to which end Mr. Cushing had in- 
vited him. 

The intimate friendship with the Forbes brothers, 
which grew out of this long voyage, was never broken. 
They were the sons of Ralph Bennett and Margaret 
Forbes of Jamaica Plain. Their mother was sister of 
James and Thomas H. Perkins, the Boston merchants. 
Robert Bennett Forbes, when a boy of twelve, entered 
the counting room of his cousins James and Thomas Per- 
kins, Jrs., but craving a more active and profitable em- 
ployment he was allowed to ship before the mast in his 
uncle's ship "Canton Packet" for China in October, 1817. 
He had just entered his thirteenth year but he had de- 
termined to be a sailor and the rough experiences of the 
sea did not turn him from his purpose. His cousin, John 
P. Cushing, was then at the head of the house of Perkins 
& Co. in Canton and on Bennett's arrival, Mr. Cushing re- 
ceived him at once into his family. The young lad made 
himself useful as a clerk, weighing teas, packing silks, 
etc., and Mr. Cushing would have gladly given him a per- 
manent position but he preferred to remain on the ship. 
He advanced rapidly and was given command of a ship 
in October, 1824, just seven years after he had shipped as 
"boy" on the "Canton Packet." His natural shrewdness 
and ability, coupled with his influential family connec- 
tions, enabled him to take advantage of the many oppor- 
tunities for paying investments, and he soon acquired 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 31 

high standing as a merchant. The command of the ship 
on the Lintin station was regarded as the summit of any 
sea-captain's career. His brother, John Murray Forbes, 
who accompanied him, was a boy of seventeen. 

Augustine Heard was then forty-five years old, nine- 
teen years the senior of Robert Bennett, and twenty-eight 
years older than John Murray Forbes. Notwithstanding 
the great disparity in years the young men came to feel 
the most affectionate regard for their associate. 

Bennett Forbes sailed for home in April, 1832. Young 
John was then in poor health but he had received such con- 
stant kindness and attention from Mr. Heard that his 
brother felt sure that he could leave him safely in such 
good hands. Shortly before sailing for home, Bennett 
wrote Mr. Heard, expressing his anxiety about John's 
health and commending him to Mr. Heard's care. 

I think him worthy of all your kind attention and have 
great hope that he will eventually prove a worthy repre- 
sentative of him who has gone.^ 

My mother who has from recent misfortune become 
perhaps too sensitive, writes this: "Say to Mr. Heard 
that I look upon him as the guardian angel of my dear 
John and tell him how grateful I feel for his disinterest- 
ed kindness to both my sons." 

I have cautioned him not to be biased by the opinion 
of any one save yourself and to abide in all things by your 
good advice. 

John Forbes was obliged to come home in the following 
year. His frequent letters to Mr. Heard are delightfully 
chatty and open hearted and full of boyish enthusiasm. 
Under the date, Aug. 17th, 1833, he describes a visit to 
New Bedford, to attend the marriage of a friend of his 
sister's. 

I will say nothing at present about the beauty of the 
bridesmaid, except that I thought the bride the loveliest 
girl in the world till I saw her twin sister. 

The same difference which exists between your char- 

> His eldest brother Thomas, who was In charge of the house of Perkins 
& Co. when he waa drowned at Macao. 



32 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

acter and mine is very strikingly displayed in our letters. 
Yours are filled with your friends, mine with myself. Still 
as you know what to expect from me, I will not 
apologize for my egotism. 

He describes a deer hunting expedition to the island of 
Naushon, near New Bedford in October. A November 
letter bears the message : "My mother talks a great deal 
about you, and sends her love most particularly." The 
speedy culmination of his romantic attachment to the 
young bridesmaid is announced in his letter of December 
10th: 

Since I last wrote you I have taken a very important 
step towards that sad speculation in matrimony, having 
become engaged to Miss Sarah Hathaway of N. Bedford. 
I need not tell you that I have been very violently smitten, 
or I should never have got into such a scrape. 

Yrs. most affectionately, 

J. M. F. 

The mock seriousness of the gushing youth finds ex- 
pression again in his letter of December 19th in which he 
says that he plans to return to China in the spring if his 
health improves sufficiently, but acknowledges that he 
may be delayed. 

Among the many inducements to the latter course is 
alas ! the sad fact that I have entered into a matrimonial 
speculation and have actually contracted for the hand and 
heart of one Miss Hathaway of New Bedford, said hand 
to be given up when most convenient to all parties con- 
cerned. 

Such heart to heart confidences between a young man 
not yet twenty-one and a man of forty-eight indicate a 
very amiable and affectionate disposition in the elder 
friend. Though Mr. Heard was never married, he had a 
singularly winning way with young people and children 
which opened the way for many delightful intimacies. His 
relatives in Ipswich had frequent reminders of his re- 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 33 

membrance and generous regard. He wrote to his broth- 
er, George W. Heard, from Canton, Feb. 14th, 1833. 

You will receive an invoice of two cases of sundries, 
consisting of shawls, crepes, various sorts of silk and 
even Grass Cloth Hdks. As neither you, Ann' nor Mary' 
will name anything that you wish for from here, I hope 
to hit your wants or taste in everything, with the excep- 
tion of the scarlet shawls. I think you had better send 
the whole case marked J. H. to Ipswich where M. and V. 
W. can take such as they can bring into use of the Hdkf . 
Gr. Cloth and silk and crepes which are not white, that 
you may give them what color you please ; and the greater 
part of the silks I have no doubt you will find useful in 
your families. . . . 

By the next . . ., you may expect some tea and insects 
for your friend Oakes.' 

The relations between Mr. Samuel Russell, the head of 
the house, and Mr. Heard, were most cordial. Mr. Rus- 
sell wrote on June 21, 1832, desiring him to continue in 
the partnership, as his term expired by agreement on 
December 31st, and hoping that his health would allow 
him to do so. Writing again May 3d, 1833, he expressed 
great regret that Mr. Heard could not renew his agree- 
ment for another term, but admitted the soundness of 
his reasons. 

Although his health was somewhat broken by the heavy 
burden of responsibility and the conditions of life in 
China, Mr. Heard remained at his post. Joseph Coolidge, 
Jr., of Boston, came in the fall of 1832 bringing a letter 
of introduction from Prof. Sidney Willard' of Cambridge. 
Financial difficulties had obliged him to leave his young 
family and seek to retrieve his fortunes in Canton. He 
entered the employment of Russell & Co. John M. Forbes, 
anxious to get back into the exciting game of money- 
making, left his young wife a few months after marriage 
and arrived in China in August, 1834. In October Mr. 

1 Geo. W. Heard married Elizabeth Ann Farley. 
» Mary, sister of George and Avisustine. 

■ William Oakes, a celebrated naturalist, owned and occupied the house 
now used as the rectory of the Episcopal Church. 
* He had married his sister, Hannah Heard. 



34 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

Heard, exercising a power of attorney, which Mr. Russell 
had authorized him to use, appointed John M. Forbes a 
partner, with power to dissolve the old house of Russell 
& Co., and form a new establishment if he considered it 
expedient. His own interest in the firm was three-six- 
teenths. He conveyed a sixteenth to Mr. Forbes and the 
same to Mr. Coolidge, leaving only a similar interest to 
himself. Writing to Mr. Coolidge, Oct, 12, 1834, he re- 
marked : 

As I do not feel that I shall be of essential service to 
it (the firm) during my absence, although I shall do all 
in my power for its benefit, I am unwilling to hold so 
large a portion of the earnings of the workers here, which 
with other reasons have induced me to relinquish to you 
one-sixteenth of my three-sixteenths. 

Having settled his business affairs, Mr. Heard began 
his home journey. He was at Manila in November, 1834. 
He wrote to Baring Brothers & Co., his London bankers, 
from Jamestown, St. Helena, on March 3d, 1835, that he 
had recently arrived from Manila in the ship "Lord Wm. 
Bentinck," and was about embarking on his old ship the 
"Emerald" for New Bedford. 

Upon his arrival in Boston he established himself in 
comfortable quarters in a chamber in No. 8 1/2 Tremont 
St., owned by his friend, William Appleton. He called 
it "The Loft." Here he transacted his business. He had 
invested largely in the cotton mill at Ipswich ; he owned 
a third of the ship "Argo," which he sold in 1838 to an 
old Ipswich friend, Robert Farley, who already owned 
the larger portion. His correspondence with his friends 
in Canton was extensive. His hours of leisure were 
spent in the homes of his many friends, or in places of 
refined amusement. He had a pew in the Old South 
Church. His kindly interest in Mr. Coolidge in China led 
naturally to intimate friendship with his family. He had 
charge of Mr. Coolidge's property, and exercised a benev- 
olent guardianship over the family of five young chil- 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 35 

dren and their mother. Mrs. Coolidge was a daughter of 
Governor Thomas Mann Randolph of Virginia, who 
lived with President Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, 
where she grew up, a woman of high culture and most 
engaging personality. Mr. Heard endeared himself to 
them all by his constant kindness and the children became 
warmly attached to him. 
Mr. Coolidge wrote from Canton in October, 1834 : 

I commend my family to your kind attentions. I hope 
to hear that you see them often. I like to think of my 
oldest boy walking by your side, with his hand in yours, 
and of my twins as seated on your knee. 

And now, farewell, and may God bless you. I can never 
forget what you have done for me. 

A few years passed quietly. In June, 1835, Mr. Heard 
slipped away for an excursion to the White Sulphur 
Springs. But in the spring of 1838, Mr. Coolidge began 
to write of friction in the affairs of Russell & Co. A dis- 
solution of the partnership was evidently impending. Mr. 
Coolidge left China, however, for a brief visit at home, 
but sailed again with his wife on July 3, 1839. Mr. Heard 
had written to Samuel Russell in Sept., 1838, that for 
want of an occupation he was thinking of going to Eng- 
land for the winter. He sailed soon after and returned in 
May, 1839. 

Immediately after the departure of the Coolidges, he 
found all the diversion and occupation he needed in a 
voyage to Havre in a French passenger packet, "The 
Rhone," on his way to Geneva, with the four Coolidge 
boys, Joseph Randolph, about eleven years old, the nine 
year old twins, Algernon Sidney and Philip Sidney, and 
Thomas Jefferson, a little fellow under eight. 

Arrangements had been made with a teacher and Mr. 
Heard assumed the novel responsibility of caring for 
four lively lads on their journey. He kept a sea-journal, 
following the habit of his long sea life, which contains 
amusing details of the petty and unaccustomed difficul- 
ties occasioned by his guardianship. But the passage 



36 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

proved interesting. The boys soon became accustomed 
to his rules. He notes that they are affectionate and hang 
about him. He recorded the daily events, and approved 
the captain's handling of the ship. 

Captain Wotten is decidedly the best captain out of 
four that I have taken passage with to or from London 
and Havre. He is the only one of them that seemed to 
know when to make sail after having taken it in. 

His own log books contain such frequent allusions to 
split sails, broken booms and topmasts, and minor casu- 
alties of many sorts, that it is very evident that he had 
never failed to carry all the sail that the weather allowed, 
and much more than a slow or timid master would have 
ordered. 

The boys were left at Geneva and Mr. Heard, after a 
short tour of Paris and London, returned on the steamer 
"British Queen" in September. 

Little Ellen Randolph Coolidge shared her brothers' af- 
fection for their common friend. She was only fourteen 
years old, but she wrote him the most fascinating notes, 
which he cherished to the end of his life. 

"I cannot let you go," she wrote, just before her broth- 
ers sailed, "without telling you how much I love you and 
how grateful I am to you for all your kindness to me and 
my brothers. Poor little fellows! They will feel badly 
enough the first week or two of their residence in 
Geneva!" 

And again in November, 1839 : 

Do come out on Saturday. I am very anxious to see 
you again ; it seems a great deal longer than it really is, 
since I have done so. 

Good bye now, my dear Mr. Heard, believe me. 

Yours very affec'ly, 

Ellen R. Coolidge. 

Mr. T. Jefferson Coolidge, the youngest of the four lads, 
remembers Mr. Heard well. He writes, "I knew him of 
course only in his old age, but a more splendid old gentle- 
man never lived." 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 37 

Immediately upon his arrival in Canton, Joseph Cool- 
idge began to write of the necessity of a new arrange- 
ment. Mr. Heard had authorized him in such an emerg- 
ency to form a new establishment and promised that he 
would join in the new venture if he wished. Availing 
himself of this, Mr. Coolidge wrote in December, 1839, 
that after January 1st, 1840, there would be a new firm, 
composed of Mr. Heard, himself, and Nathaniel Kins- 
man. He urged Mr. Heard to come and stay with him for 
two or three years. 

A year elapsed before he decided to go to China. He 
lived at "The Albion" in Boston but retained the "Loft" 
as his office on Tremont Street. His brother, Geo. W. 
Heard, was living then on Pinckney Street and Mr. 
Augustine passed many pleasant hours in the family cir- 
cle. His brother John had died in May, 1839, Charles, 
many years before. Naturally George and his family 
were especially near and dear to him. He had married 
Elizabeth Ann, daughter of Major Robert and Susanna 
Farley on Nov. 6, 1823. 

Their children were: John, born Sept. 14, 1824; Au- 
gustine, born Dec. 7, 1827; Margaret, born March 2, 
1830, died July 21, 1831; Albert Farley, born Oct. 4, 
1833 ; George Washington, born Jan. 31, 1837. 

Capt. Augustine Heard became greatly attached to 
these four nephews, and in their young manhood, he ad- 
mitted one after the other to the firm of which he was the 
head. 

He wrote to Mr. Coolidge on May 7, 1841 : 

Within the last week I have engaged with Mr. Apple- 
ton to go to Canton in his new ship, "Mary Ellen," and 
shall probably leave here between the 20th and 25th 
with a cargo of cottons and lead. To be certain that she 
should not be sailed by a drone I shall take the manage- 
ment of her into my own hands for the purpose. 

He sailed on the 20th, taking with him memoranda of 
the persons whom he wished to remember with gifts 
from Canton— Mr. Oakes, Rev. D. T. Kimball, Prof. Wil- 



38 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

lard, Rufus Choate, through his brother George, R. T. 
Paine, Joseph Lord (tea) and Robert Farley. He carried 
commissions for Canton ware, dry goods, teas, etc., but 
nothing probably gave him more pleasure than the very 
tender word of farewell from Rev. David Tenney Kim- 
ball, the pastor of the family church. 

Ipswich, May 18,1841. 
Dear Sir: 

As you are about to embark for a foreign and distant 
land, give me leave in remembrance of repeated tokens 
of your friendship and in consideration no less of the un- 
certainty of my life than your own, to express to you the 
desire that through the kind providence of him who rules 
the elements, you and your young nephew, who accom- 
panies you, will pursue your voyage out and in with safe- 
ty; or if peril on the sea or sickness in a foreign clime 
shall prevent your return, that you will reach that world 
where storms never rise and friends never part. 

Yrs. affectionately, 

D. T. Kimball. 

The "young nephew" mentioned in the letter was John, 
the eldest son of his brother George. He was a lively lad, 
and had found trouble of various sorts in the different 
schools to which he had been sent. As a last resort, as 
Phillips Academy at Andover was a popular school, he 
was sent there probably to prepare for college. His de- 
scription of his reception at Andover, and of his exper- 
iences there is vivid and amusing. 

While I was standing about and trying to get accus- 
tomed to my new surroundings, a boy came up and asked, 
'Can you fight?' I said, *I don't know what you mean.' 
Whereupon, to illustrate his meaning, he hit me a smart 
blow. On this I went into him fists, feet and body, which 
so astonished him that he gave in at once and I entered 
the school with some eclat. 

His three years at the Academy were of little profit in 
book learning, but his rough and tumble life with the 
boys, and the stern discipline may have fitted him for the 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 39 

strenuous experiences that were in store. Mr. Heard's 
reminiscence of the weekly "settling of accounts" as he 
termed it, by the principal, is thrilling even at this re- 
mote day. 

The culprits were ordered, one by one, to the east lec- 
ture room, so called, where the momentous and painful 
interview took place. The first order was to take off the 
clothing from the upper part of the body; then to fold 
the arms around one of the iron pillars supporting the 
roof, and all being thus duly prepared, the Master knelt 
down and prayed that the whipping might be sanctified. 
The punishment was then inflicted with a long, flexible 
cowhide. This story will hardly be believed today, but I 
was, too often, one of the principal actors to leave any 
room for doubt. 

After a period in the English High School his eyes 
failed and his boyish craving for novel and exciting ex- 
periences led to his going with his uncle, Captain Joseph 
Farley, in the ship "Argo" to Havana, when he was only 
thirteen years and eight months old. Stricken with fe- 
ver he was left in good hands by his uncle, who could not 
wait for his recovery, but he recovered sufficiently to be 
put on board a vessel sailing for Boston, where he ar- 
rived about the time news of his sickness and probable 
death had reached the family. He sailed again with 
Capt. Farley for Cronstadt, but returned home with no 
further desire for a sailor's life. The hum-drum clerk- 
ship which followed was no more to his liking and he 
hailed with rapture his uncle Augustine's invitation to 
go out with him in the "Mary Ellen" and begin work as a 
clerk in the Canton office. 

Affairs in China were in a very disturbed condition 
when the ship arrived. Young John wrote home most in- 
terestingly and intelligently of the affairs of the house 
and the political unrest. Mr. George B. Dixwell and Mr. 
Coolidge were the resident members of Augustine Heard 
& Co., and they were sharply at variance with each other. 

The "Opium War" was then in progress. The Chinese 



40 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

refused to permit the importation of opium from India. 
Great Britain resented their interference with this very- 
lucrative trade and compelled the Chinese by force of 
arms to grant entrance for the drug. A treaty was 
patched up but much ill-feeling remained, against the 
English particularly, but extending to all the "foreign 
devils." The English merchants had been obliged to 
leave Canton, but the American houses and those of oth- 
er nationalities continued at their post. While affairs 
were in this tense condition, and the least indiscretion 
might precipitate a violent outbreak, a quarrel arose in 
the street between some Lascar sailors from the ships 
and the populace. Stones were thrown, the Malays, who 
were among the Lascars, were about drawing their 
knives and bloodshed seemed inevitable. 

John Heard's narrative in his letter of Dec. 13th, 1842, 
to his parents gives a graphic description of the dan- 
gerous episode from this point. 

Seeing this, Mr. Dixwell, who speaks the Indian lan- 
guage, went out and by threats and persuasions drew off 
the Lascars and placed them all in a vacant hong near 
our own, called the 'Creek Factory.' Notwithstanding 
that the mob must have perceived that his interference 
was in their behalf, they commenced stoning him and 
continued it, until he made his escape into our house and 
closed and barricaded the doors, as well as one leading 
into a passage running to the east of our residence to the 
hongs and which, if open, would have exposed us to at- 
tacks in the rear. After throwing a few stones at our 
factory, (which, by the way, is called the Dutch Hong), 
the mob turned their attention to the next house and as- 
saulted it violently. It was occupied by Mr. Murrow and 
two ladies were staying there. These, with Mr. M. made 
their escape to one of the Hongs and the rioters meeting 
with no resistance quickly forced the doors and com- 
menced plundering the house. This was about 4 P. M., 
and they continued busy there until nearly nightfall, 
when having taken everything moveable away, they fired 
the house together with that called the Company's Hong, 
which adjoins it. 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 41 

Until this time we had not supposed there was much 
actual danger, expecting that before they had had time 
to finish their work at Murrow's, the Mandarins would 
have sent soldiers to our relief. We had, notwithstand- 
ing, done all in our power to render our barricades se- 
cure and had loaded all our arms to be in readiness to act 
on the defensive, should it become necessary. At this 
time, about 6 o'clock, they commenced their attack upon 
us, having become perfectly infuriated with the success 
of their first attempt. They had been fighting among 
themselves for the plunder and this aroused all their pas- 
sions, besides their number was constantly augmenting. 
They commenced by breaking our windows and endeav- 
oring to force our gates, but as these last we knew could 
hold out against their attacks for a long time, and the 
former were secured by iron bars, running across them, 
we contented ourselves with keeping a vigilant watch, 
and using our utmost exertions to get our account books 
and valuable papers, together with our trunks and such 
articles as were most handy, away from the place, send- 
ing them by the Hong Coolies, through the passage be- 
fore alluded to, to the Hongs. This passage, we were 
obliged to defend, not only because it opened a gap for a 
near attack, but because, through it only could we retreat 
when matters came to the worst. All this time we were 
using our utmost endeavors to keep the fire from taking 
firm hold of our dwelling and with the help of the Hong 
coolies, of whom we had a large number, we partially suc- 
ceeded. 

About this time the mob commenced wrenching the 
iron bars from one window in the lower Godowns and to 
prevent this Uncle A. fired over them once. This had the 
effect of keeping them away for ten or fifteen minutes 
only, when they returned to the charge with fresh num- 
bers, at the same time attempting to force the door of the 
passage. . . . We were now obliged to fire at them 
which sent them away for a short time, and as we had 
nearly half a million of treasure in our vaults, we de- 
termined upon the dangerous experiment of opening our 
front door and endeavoring to pass a portion of it into 
a tea boat, which was lying at the foot of our yard, de- 
fending the door from the mob with our muskets while 
the Coolies were carrying down the money. We succeed- 
ed in passing out a few thousand dollars, but the num- 
bers of our assailants were so great, and they collected 



42 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

about us armed with every kind of a missile, that we 
were obliged to make a precipitate retreat in doors. The 
rascals got so near that stones were coming into the open 
door in such profusion that we could not get near to 
close it, but just as they were on the point of rushing in, 
we brought our guns to bear upon them and fired, and 
during the ensuing panic flew to the door and succeeded 
in closing and securing it before they recovered suflScient- 
ly to prevent us. 

"By this time our books and papers had been got 
away, as well as most of our personal effects ; at least all 
we were able to save, before the fire rendered it too hot 
for us to go to our rooms. In numbers, we were at this 
moment: Uncle A., Mr. Dixwell, Mr. Roberts, a gentle- 
man belonging to Matheson & Co.'s establishment, then 
staying with us, named Humpston, myself and a Malay 
steward belonging to the "Fort William," who was sepa- 
rated from his companions, and who rendered us most es- 
sential service by loading the guns after discharges and 
was throughout very cool and resolute. The mob now 
fired the Creek Hong, as well as a chop house adjoining 
and the flames began to encroach upon us from all sides, 
the "Creek" being next to ours. They also recommenced 
their attack upon the door of the passage and soon suc- 
ceeded in forcing it, thus leaving nothing between them 
and us. Crowds of them collected in the door way and 
were on the point of rushing upon us, when Mr. Dix- 
well fired and they instantly fell back. 

Such was the effect produced upon them by this time- 
ly discharge, that they gave up their attacks upon us 
from that point and scarcely one of them dared to show 
his head at the doorway again, though it was entirely un- 
obstructed. I should have mentioned before that one of 
our Coolies hit upon an expedient to prevent their en- 
trance which showed considerable ingenuity. Remember- 
ing that the greater part of these fellows were barefoot 
he caused all the old bottles in the establishment to be 
brought and broken before them, thus strewing the 
whole passage with glass. 

The fire was now fast increasing upon us and I left 
through the passage which emerged into one of the back 
streets, for the Hongs, to endeavor to induce them to send 
engines and Coolies to our assistance, I went first to the 
old Houqua, but he said that he had his own Hong to take 
care of, and could not spare us aid. This was the answer 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 43 

of one or two others, but I was prevented from prose- 
cuting my endeavor among any of those more remotely 
situated from the scene of desolation by being pursued 
through the streets by some of the thieves. I lost no time 
in making my way back to our party, whom I found as I 
had left them. 

Not long afterwards, at perhaps 9 P. M., the danger 
from fire becoming still more pressing, Mr. Roberts at- 
tended by the Malay ... set forth upon a similar er- 
rand. In the mean time large numbers of the thieves 
had got around to the back street and they intercepted 
his return to us even going so far as attempting to plun- 
der his person. He, however, got off by the assistance of 
some of the Coolies who were with him and reached the 
Hong in safety, where he was obliged to remain. This 
deprived us of two valuable members of our small num- 
ber, the Malay particularly, to whom, in consequence of 
his expertness in loading we had entrusted one half of 
our cartridges. The loss of these was the most serious 
which could have befallen us, as they were our only 
means of protecting ourselves in our retreat . . . and 
this we were extremely anxious to defer to the latest pos- 
sible moment. We still entertained slight hopes that the 
Mandarins would send some force to drive away the mob, 
and we could not abandon so large an amount of treasure 
until the last minute. 

We accordingly divided our small force, keeping a 
vigilant watch and being obliged occasionally to fire upon 
them. By these means we held the mob in check and en- 
deavored to subdue the fire. Of this we had small hopes, 
but it was worth a trial and another hour passed in this 
manner. At last the robbers began to get more bold and 
built a fire against our door, which we were constantly 
obliged to keep drenched with water. This and our mus- 
kets kept them away and they finally turned their atten- 
tion to other points of attack. They now began to in- 
crease their numbers in the back streets and the Hong 
merchants were frequentlj'^ sending to us to try to induce 
us to make our escape while there was a chance, fearing 
that the mob in the street would attack us as we passed 
them in retreating to the Hongs. 

We still held on, however, but the Chinese had fired 
the buildings in our rear. Finding that we were burn- 
ing on all sides, that our own house was in a blaze 
throughout; that the robbers were preparing to attack 



44 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

US in the rear as well as the front; that only three car- 
tridges remained ; and knowing besides that the fire would 
protect our treasure for some hours, we decided that it 
was time to retreat, prepared in case we met with trouble 
to force our way to the Hongs. We had defended our 
place for eight hours without any assistance whatever, 
and every one had left us but about ten of Footae's Cool- 
ies, who were capital fellows, and now surrounded us and 
kept off the mob with cries and their long poles. 

Marching with our muskets and pistols ready for in- 
stant action, we passed through the streets and reached 
the Hongs about eleven o'clock, well wearied and anxious. 
We lost no time in dispatching an express to Whampoa, 
ordering boats to come up with all the arms and force 
they could muster, hoping they might be able to reach us 
in six hours. . . . We had eaten nothing since eight 
o'clock in the morning and having taken some slight re- 
freshments we laid down for an hour or two. Boats were 
up at day light .... and we went immediately to our 
house. We found that they had succeeded in forcing our 
treasury and were then fighting for and carrying off the 
money. We fired a shot over them and advanced, when 
most of them dispersed, moving off a short distance. We 
guarded our premises and on the arrival of more boats 
succeeded in saving nearly half our money, getting it off 
to Whampoa on board one of the ships. 

It only remains for me to say that we owe everything 
to the coolness, intrepidity and presence of mind of Uncle 
Augustine. He encouraged us by his voice, animated us 
by his example — was everywhere — did everything — and 
to him belongs the credit of saving the vast amount of 
money which we did (over $200,000). 

. . . But you know him as well as I do and can imag- 
ine how he would act on such occasions much better than 
I could describe it. ... As for myself, as I suppose you 
will want to know what I did — I did what I could, obeyed 
orders, ran here and there, and endeavored to make my- 
self useful, but don't suppose I did much good.^" 

Eventually the Chinese government made good the loss 
of the House and personal losses as well. A large num- 
ber of the rioters were taken and punished by being 

' He was gratified on learning that his Uncle Augustine wrote home: 
"You will be glad to hear that John behaved very well in a time of dlffl- 
culty and some danger." 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 45 

yoked together and exposed on the steps of the Consoo 
house in a crowded thoroughfare and deprived of food 
and drink until they died. 

After three years Mr. Coolidge withdrew from the 
House and a new organization was made. Mr. John 
Heard relates the particulars in his unpublished sketch 
of his life. 

A short time after Mr. Coolidge left, I think in May, 
1844, my future was fixed in a manner very agreeable 
to me. Uncle A. called me into his room and asked me 
to sign a paper that he handed me. I did so and weni 
back to my desk, hardly giving the matter a thought, 
supposing I had simply witnessed something. Uncle A. 
came to me shortly afterwards, putting the paper before 
me and saying: 'You sign very carelessly, you should be 
careful to see what you are about.' I looked at it and 
found it was one of a set of the Articles of Co-partner- 
ship of the new firm of Augustine Heard & Co., by which 
the house was divided into thirds. Uncle A. and Dixwell 
having one third each and the other third divided be- 
tween Roberts and myself, I having two parts and he 
one. I could hardly believe my eyes. Not content with 
this, he had prepared another surprise for me. I had 
never received any salary for the nearly three years I 
had been at work in China, and, indeed, I had never ex- 
pected anything. Uncle A. had given me an interest 
with him in some small shipments he had made to Ameri- 
ca, which had, with some adventures I had made on my 
own account, for which he lent me the money, produced 
a gain of some three thousand dollars. I supposed this 
was in lieu of salary, and so I told him when he asked 
me what I thought my services were worth. He said: 
'But the House has paid you nothing and it is your debt- 
or. Will that amount be sufficient?' He then gave me 
a cheque for $2000 a year for the time I had been in 
China, nearly three years. So that I was started in life 
with about ten thousand dollars and a partnership in the 
House. I lacked rather more than three months of being 
twenty-one. Of course I was very grateful and made up 
my mind to do my best. 

The above example gives some idea of the kind of man 
Uncle A. was. He was always rather better than his 
word, than worse. And, as I have before said, he had 
the most marvellous control over his temper, a matter in 



46 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

which I was very deficient. I remember that once, when, 
as usual, I had been taking samples out of some chests of 
tea that we had weighed, for some reason he was very 
anxious that they should fairly represent it, and he asked 
me if I had been very careful about it. Without meaning 
any impertinence, I said, 'If you don't think they are all 
right, you had better take them yourself,' meaning that 
as he was very anxious about them, he would be better 
satisfied if he saw they were well taken himself. He made 
no reply and I had forgotten the circumstance entirely, 
when a few days afterwards I got a note from him say- 
ing he did not believe I knew how I had addressed him a 
few days before. He then repeated what had occurred 
and I saw how grossly impertinent I must have appeared 
to him. 1 hastened to apologize and to explain what was 
in my mind when I spoke so to him. 

The clipper barque "Sappho" had been built for the 
use of the House. On her arrival in China, it was found 
that she was not adapted for the business and she was 
loaded and sent home to be sold. Mr. Heard availed him- 
self of the opportunity of a direct return passage and 
sailed for home in December, 1844. Very soon after his 
arrival he took passage for England, returning in June, 
sailed again for Havre in November and returned in 
January, 1846. In 1847, 1848 and 1853, he repeated his 
short trips to England, presumably for business pur- 
poses. 

Many busy years followed his retirement from the 
personal management of the affairs of Augustine Heard 
& Co. His nephews all served their term in China, the 
younger ones, Albert Farley and George Washington, 
following John and Augustine, in the management. But 
the great packages of business letters which remain are 
evidences that the old merchant was always informed of 
the operations of the House and that his word was 
awaited before any departure was made from its routine 
methods. For many years, and as long as he lived, the 
business was very profitable. When John Heard retired 
from his position as head of the House in December, 
1862, he notes in his reminiscences : 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 47 

I left the house firmly established, rich and second 
to no other American House in China. Indeed, I doubt if 
many would not have called it the first. 

As has been noted already, Mr. Heard had a large in- 
terest in the Ipswich Cotton Mill, and held to it through 
its checkered history until it passed completely into his 
hands in 1852. He was interested as well in the manu- 
facture of lace in 1822 and 1823, an enterprise which 
was originated by his brother George W., and in the dis- 
tillery which his brother operated. The lace business re- 
sulted in a loss and after a few years it was sold to the 
Ipswich Lace Co., which became bankrupt. He was much 
attached to the fine mansion his father had built, and 
took pleasure in making repairs and improvements. The 
beautiful mantles and grates were placed by him in 1849. 
The homestead lot was enlarged by the purchase of 
houses and lands adjoining until it included nearly the 
whole of the present spacious lot, and a half dozen old 
dwellings were removed including the ancient Wallis 
house, of unique and striking architecture, which, if it 
had been spared, would have been regarded today as an 
invaluable relic. The ancient Crompton-Choate house 
had been destroyed by its owner the year before he ac- 
quired the lot, and he enlarged this by the purchase of 
the Daniel Cogswell property and the Baker estate ad- 
joining. 

Here he dwelt in his declining years, his sister Mary 
making a home for him. In March, 1862, by invitation 
of his friend of so many years, John Murray Forbes, he 
was his guest, in company with Mr. Bacon and Mr. 
Brooks, on a trip to Beaufort on the paddle wheel trans- 
port "Atlantic." Mr. Forbes wrote: "Mr. Heard, as I 
see more of him, seems very feeble. I hope the yacht will 
get down so that I may make him comfortable." He re- 
turned in April. 

Mr. Heard was always a generous giver, but for the 
most part gave quietly and secretly. Now and then, how- 
ever, his private papers mention his benefactions, his 



48 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

subscription in 1839 of $200 annually towards the salary 
of Prof. Adams at Harvard, and his remembrance of 
friends. But the grateful letters from many recipients 
of his bounty attest the existence of a multitude whose 
names were known only to the giver, who were indebted 
to him for relief in times of need. 

Nor did he limit himself to gifts, which were compara- 
tive trifles to his abundant wealth. He loved to do large 
things. When the new meeting house of the First 
Church was built in 1847, he contributed the fine organ, 
and his nephew, Mr. John Heard, then in China, provided 
the bell. In the dark days of the Civil War, the three 
brothers, then in China, John, Albert and George, sent 
their uncle £1000 for the relief of Ipswich soldiers and 
their families. The exchange value was $7600 and Mr. 
Heard enlarged the gift to $10,000 and conveyed it to 
trustees, appointed by the Town to receive and adminis- 
ter it. With the accumulation of interest, nearly $13,- 
000 was disbursed. 

But his great benefaction, which interested him most 
deeply in his declining years was his gift of a Public Li- 
brary to the town of his birth. He selected the site and 
purchased the land. He took upon himself the selection 
of plans and the oversight of the erection of the building. 
He appointed the Trustees to whom the management was 
to be left, defined the policy he wished them to pursue, 
and appointed the librarian. He approved the selection 
of the first three thousand volumes, and seven thousand 
more were added by the generosity of his four nephews, 
after his death. He provided for the endowment so that 
the library thus established might be self-supporting for- 
ever and free to every one. His total benefaction exceed- 
ed forty thousand dollars. 

Before the Library was ready for use, he became ill 
and after a short sickness died in the family homestead 
on the 14th of September, 1868, on the same spot where 
he was born on March 30, 1785. 

At the funeral service on September 16th, a tender and 





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^H^ •5».'*.>H 


< 


--. -ML . 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 49 

beautiful eulogy was spoken by Professor John P 
Cowles, Principal of the Ipswich Female Seminary. 

fh^l Tif\^ man of remarkable energy and decision. The 
W M ^^^ ^u. Ki''''^ ^^ ^'^ promptly and in its 
time He wrought with great power and without noise, 
±01 his was not a heavy but an effective stroke. Its cer- 
tainty and efficiency were like those of a mechanical force. 
m reality, it was physical and intellectual power of a 
rare order, working promptly, steadily and surely for 
whatever end he sought to accomplish. He was a man of 
undaunted courage. He was a stranger to fear 

He was a man of eminent self-control. He had'all'his 
faculties well m hand, trained instruments, ready on any 
emergency, for use. He had his passions also well in 
hand. They were not his masters but his servants, made 
to know their place and to obey his over-mastering will 
His will was one of the strongest and most effective fac- 
ulties m him; controlling himself he was able to control 
others; among kings, he would have been still himself a 
king. ... ^ii a, 

He was a man of exact truthfulness. The word which 
he said was strictly true. He neither prevaricated nor 
exaggerated— his habit was rather to extenuate than to 
exaggerate— to say less instead of more than might be 

He was a man of perfect honor. ... He had no man- 
agement, no underhand methods, no contrivances behind 
the scene. He could not have been a political demagogue ; 
as little could he have been the tool of demagogues 

To those who knew him at all intimately, his kindness 
and benevolence were, perhaps, the most impressive and 
stirring traits in his character. People who beheld his 
dignified form and somewhat reserved manner, might 
not dream that under that quiet exterior there beat a 
heart as tender as a woman's. There are multitudes who 
know how easily his heart was touched with any want 
or suffering, whatever, that fell in his way. I believe that 
it would be the testimony of all who ever knew him that 
no case of real need was ever laid before him in vain If 
all those who have received his aid in counsel, or with 
material succor, were gathered together it would be a 
great congregation, and if they should open their lips to 
thank him, he would say, "Don't speak of it, it is noth- 
ing. 



50 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

Many of his friends among the merchants of Boston, 
with whom he had been closely associated for many 
years, attended his funeral. One of them, returning home, 
wrote to Mr. John Heard, his personal tribute. 

My earliest recollections of your uncle dates back to 
the time when he returned from China in the "Gov. Endi- 
cott," when, in my boyish days I began to have a strong 
fancy for ships. And I remember him, too, when in the 
"Emerald" on a voyage to Calcutta. But I only first 
knew him in China, when he went out in the "Mary El- 
len". Many of his acquaintances were mine also and of 
the many and of the much I have heard spoken of him, 
no one ever uttered a word but of warm regard. And on 
this, his day of burial, one whose acquaintance with him 
is of fifty years duration, I mean Israel Whitney, re- 
marked to me, "Augustine Heard never said a word to 
me — never told me anything I felt sorry he had spoken." 

. . . His marked success, was, I think, to be attributed 
in a great degree to this prominent quality. What he be- 
gan he rigidly adhered to, not with a dogged obstinacy, 
but with a thoughtful, deliberate, stern, unflagging per- 
sistency. He seemed to me to be wholly free from im- 
pulse. Judgment ruled and was ever master. . . . 

He knew the true calling of a merchant as one placed 
here by God to acquire in order that he may diffuse. He 
never made the fatal mistake of making money as an end. 
He was one of God's true secret almoners. Of the many, 
numberless, kind ways in which he comforted and made 
others happy, we shall never know. It is unnecessary. 
But long must be that record kept by the Recording An- 
gel. 

With sincere regard, 

E. H. Faucon. 

Joseph Coolidge wrote from Paris on receiving news 
of his death : 

I need not say how great a shock and grief this was to 
me. I had hoped that he would live until I could return 
home and see him once more. I wanted again to thank 
him for all he had done for me and mine. 

To you who know him so well, I need not speak of the 
many rare qualities which distinguished him. Modesty, 
courage, justice, truth, generosity, and self-respect, met 
in him to a degree that is seldom found in any man. 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 51 

Two anonymous poetical tributes appeared in the Bos- 
ton newspapers. 



THE FUNERAL AT IPSWICH 

There stood a figure from the past before me 
With a faint voice — who spake of Augustine, 

A blind old man, but in his tone was music 
Because he told me what my friend had been. 

He said but truth — yet in that simple story 

Of a good life, brought roundly past four score. 

It seemed to me there was a certain glory 
Which I in goodness never saw before. 

He said, "He was all honor — not a shadow 

Of meanness even fell upon his fame." 
He said, "He was all kindness — orphan, widow. 

The poor, the broken-hearted blessed his name." 

His labor brought him riches — but that saying 

About the camel and the needle's eye 
Came not near him ; his dollars were as mirrors 

Whose light he multiplied his goodness by. 

When, late, I saw those dark men out of Asia 
Rolled through our streets — the scholars of Cathay — 

Methought, "Well, our ambassadors before them 
Went to their empire, with less proud array." 

Those noble merchants without steel or banners 
Carried truth East — and now the East is ours. 

Their trade was not in talk, but their words planted 
Faith between the oldest and the youngest powers. 

Well, there be good men many among merchants. 
Enough to temper down life's bitter leaven. 

Was there not a scribe to whom his Master whispered : 
Friend, thou art not very far from the Kingdom of 
Heaven ? 



52 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

IN MEMORY OF AUGUSTINE HEARD 

Lover of men, that mad'st their need thine own ; 

Of lion-heart, yet tender as a child ; 

Patient of pain, when it was thine to bear ; 

Impatient when it fell to others' share ; 

Calm as the moon, when myriad Tartars wild 

With mortal hate, beset thee all alone 

Save one brave Pythias, pledged with thee to die ; 

Thine honor stainless as the vernal sky ; 

Thy left hand unacquainted with thy right ; 

Doubtless thy sweet unconscious ministries 

Done without trumpet to the "least of these," 

Recorded in immortal letters bright. 

Shall be acknowledged in the sight of all. 

When breaks upon the world the Great Archangel's call. 



Ill 

JOSEPH GREEN COGSWELL. 

Joseph Cogswell, the son of Francis and Anstice Cogs- 
well and grandson of Dr. Joseph Manning, was born on 
the 27th of September, 1786. As Dr. Manning died on 
May 8th, 1784, and bequeathed the homestead to Anstice, 
it is probable that Joseph, the youngest child in the fam- 
ily of six, was born there. In his reminiscences of what 
he called his hairbreadth escapes, written in his old age, 
he tells the story that one day when he was not quite four 
years old, the frame of a new house for his father was 
being raised. While the workmen were enjoying the good 
cheer, which always accompanied a "raising," the little 
fellow climbed a ladder and then up the rafters to the 
ridge pole, on which he stood up and cried out "See Me." 
His shout was heard by the carpenters and he was res- 
cued before he could attempt further dangerous feats.' 

In his ninth year, while trying the strength of the ice 
in the river in late winter, very likely at their back door, 
it broke suddenly and he fell in head first and was swept 
under the ice. Twice his head appeared among the float- 
ing ice-cakes, but he was swept under the ice again. Prov- 
identially help was at hand when he emerged the third 
time, and he was taken from the river unconscious. 

Then as now, the "Cove" was a famous resort for boys 
for swimming. In the summer of the same year, when he 
nearly lost his life under the ice, he was one of a group of 
youngsters who undertook to swim across. As he told the 
story : "On their way back, one of the number was seized 

iThis anecdote fixes the date of the family dwelling. Evidently the 
original Dr. Manning house was taken down and the present building 
erected on the same spot in 1790. The hip roof was then In vogue. Sev- 
eral other buildings of this period were of similar structure. It continued 
to be the home of the family and was sold by Professor Cogswell in 1831 
after the death of his sister, Elizabeth, his only surviving near relative. 



54 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

with cramp and had to be supported on the shoulders of 
the leader of the expedition. Although cautioned not to 
cling and confine the arms of his supporter, fear made 
him neglect the caution and he clung so close that both 
must have sunk, had not a boat put out to save them." 
He mentions no names but it may be presumed that the 
young Joe was the hero of the hour. 

The little boys of that period began their schooling 
with a "school-dame," and when they had outgrown the 
good woman, they entered the Grammar School, where 
many a lad had been fitted for college. Joseph continued 
in these schools until he was fourteen years old. Then, 
as the ancient Grammar School had lost its high repute, 
he was sent to school in Atkinson, N. H., a few months, 
and was entered at Phillips Academy, Exeter, in January, 
]801. His friend and playmate, Augustine Heard, had 
preceded him two years before, and they were fellow stu- 
dents for a time. 

He remained at Exeter a year and a half, making rapid 
advances in his studies and enjoying the fine social circle 
into which he gained entrance. His school boy affection 
for Mary, the daughter of Governor Gilman, never cooled 
and in due time she became his wife. 

He began his course at Harvard in 1802 and was grad- 
uated in 1806. By the will of his father, who died in 
October, 1793, Mr. John Heard became guardian of the 
two sons, Francis and Joseph, and some of the college 
bills have been preserved in the Heard papers. One of 
them is of particular interest : 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 55 

Joseph G. Cogswell to the President and Fellows of 
Harvard College Dr. 

To his fourth Quarter Bill ending June 26, 1806. 







$cts. 


Steward and Commons 




10.91 


Sizings ... 






Study and Cellar Rent 




1.50 


Instruction 




1.50 


Librarian 




1.00 


Medical Instruction 






Books 




.20 


Catalogue and Commencement Dinner 




.44 


Repairs 




.78 


Sweepers and Sand 




.46 


Assessment for delinquency in pajmient of Quarter 




bills 




7.75 


Wood 




3.30 


Fines, for indecent conduct in whispering at 


prayei 


•s 1.00 




28.84 


Credit by Hollis money 




16.08 


Exhibition 




6.80 




22.88 



5.96 
Oct. 6, 1806. Rec'd Payment by Mr. Levi Frisbee from 
John Heard. 

It will be noted that the Harvard Senior now wrote 
himself Joseph Green Cogswell, though his baptismal 
name and the name which appears in his father's will, 
and in conveyances by his guardian, was plain Joseph. 
His "indecent conduct at prayers" indicates lively and 
exuberant spirits. He loved daring and venturesome ex- 
ploits. He recalled the fights between townies and stu- 
dents on the day of the Annual Election. On one of these 
occasions, the Menotomy (now Arlington) boys came to 
Cambridge in great force and Cogswell was knocked 
down by a Menotomy butcher and fell under the heels of 



56 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

a frightened horse, happily escaping without serious in- 
jury. 

He taught school during the winter to gain needed 
funds. In his Senior year he was teaching not far from 
Cambridge and requiring a book, he came back to his 
room on the fourth floor of Hollis to get it. His room- 
mate had locked the door, but finding the adjoining room 
open he climbed out of the window, and keeping his toes 
on the narrow ledge about an inch wide, he held on by the 
gutter or mouldings above his head and attempted to 
work along to his own window. He had just reached it 
when the moulding came off, but grasping instinctively, 
he caught hold of the window frame and saved himself 
from falling. He used to add to the tale of this reckless 
performance that "Goody Morse," who was passing 
through the college yard, saw his adventure and fainted 
at the sight. 

Young Cogswell seems to have had no fixed plans for 
his life work, when he completed his college course. His 
friend, Augustine Heard, had sailed on his first voyage 
as super-cargo in November, 1805, and Cogswell sought 
a similar position and sailed for India in June, 1806. A 
single voyage, however, cured him for the time of any 
desire for a sea life and he began the study of lav/ with 
Hon. Fisher Ames at Dedham and continued with Judge 
Prescott, father of William H. Prescott, the future his- 
torian. 

Professional studies wearied him and in 1809 he sailed 
for the Mediterranean and remained in Europe for nearly 
two years. On his return he re-entered Judge Prescott's 
office, was admitted to the bar, and on April 17th, 1812, 
married Mary F. Oilman and removed at once to Belfast, 
Maine. There he opened an office and began the practise 
of law, but his young wife began to show symptoms of 
consumption and before winter he was obliged to break 
up his home and remove her to her father's house in 
Exeter. He wrote his sister, Elizabeth, in March, 1813, 
that he hoped his wife's health would permit her to spend 
much of the summer in Ipswich, but she declined rapidly 
and died on the 16th of July. 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 57 

Completely unnerved by grief, Mr. Cogswell gave up 
the Law and wrote to President Kirkland of Harvard de- 
siring a tutorship if possible. His letter to his sister, 
dated Belfast, August 16, 1813, reveals his loneliness and 
the tenderness of his regard for those at home. 

I heard from President Kirkland last week — he says 
I can have the office of Tutor in Cambridge without doubt. 
Mr. Everett' is to leave in October or first part of Novem- 
ber, which will be as soon as I wish to go. I feel some 
satisfaction in the view of going to Cambridge. It will 
give me a retreat from the world and enable me to con- 
tribute as much to the comfort of my friends as any situ- 
ation I could be in. Were it possible for me to do any- 
thing in Ipswich I should wish to be constantly with you 
and mother, but I know were I to remain there it would 
deprive me of the means which I shall now have of re- 
paying you for some of the infinite acts of kindness, which 
you have shown me. 

For a little while he enjoyed his new task. The study 
of botany was taken up with the enthusiasm that charac- 
terized all his undertakings and his health was improved 
by his long walks to nearly all the towns within twenty 
miles of Cambridge. But in the summer of 1815 he was 
weary of his work and sailed for the south of France, as 
agent for the Salem merchant, William Gray, in conduct- 
ing a law suit before the French courts. He returned in 
the following year and was at Ipswich in July and Au- 
gust. At the solicitation of Mr. Andrew Thorndike, 
whose son Augustus was just graduating at Harvard, he 
accompanied the young man to the University of Gotting- 
en, nominally as his tutor, but really to pursue his studies 
for a prolonged period. 

The liberal salary paid him for his friendly oversight of 
the young student and the defraying of all the expense of 
travel, made the two years that followed one of the hap- 
piest periods of Mr. Cogswell's life. After a month's tour 
along the Rhine, they arrived at Gottingen November 
1st, 1816. His two intimate friends, George Ticknor and 

1 Edward Everett, afterwards President of Harvard and Governor of the 
Commonwealth. 



58 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

Edward Everett had preceded him. Ticknor, five years 
younger than himself, a Dartmouth graduate of 1807, 
had begun his German studies in 1815. Everett, eight 
years his junior, had been graduated at Harvard in 1811 
and having received his appointment as Professor of 
Greek in 1815, went abroad in the same year. 

Though the four friends saw much of each other, they 
set to work in veiy studious fashion. Ticknor, writing 
home, described his methodical habits.' 

Four times a week I make Cogswell a visit of half an 
hour after dinner and three times I spend from nine to 
ten in the evening with him so that I feel I am doing 
quite right and quite as little as I ought to do in giving up 
the remaining thirteen hours of the day to study, espe- 
cially as I gave fourteen to it last winter without injury. 

Cogswell gives us a glimpse of his own extraordinary 
application in his letter from Gottingen, March 8, 1817 :' 

I must tell you something about our colony at Gottingen 
before I discuss other subjects . . . First as to the Pro- 
fessor (Everett) and Dr. Ticknor, as they are called here, 
everybody knows them in this part of Germany, and also 
knows how to value them. For once in my life I am 
proud to acknowledge myself an American on the Eu- 
ropean side of the Atlantic. . . . You must not think 
me extravagant, but I venture to say that the notions 
which the European literati have entertained of America 
will be essentially changed by G. and E's (Ticknor's and 
Everett's) residence on the Continent; we were known to 
be a brave, a rich and an enterprising people, but that a 
scholar was to be found among us, or any man who had 
a desire to be a scholar, had scarcely been conceived. 

Deducting the time from the 13th of December to the 
27th of January during which I was confined to my room, 
I have been pretty industrious ; through the winter I be- 
haved as well as one could expect. German has been my 
chief study ; to give it a relief I have attended one hour a 
day to a lecture in Italian on the Modern Arts, and, to 
feel satisfied that I had some sober inquiry in hand, I 
have devoted another to Professor Saalfeld's course in 

1 "Gofittingen and Harvard" In "Carlyle's Laugh." P. 337. Thomas 
Wentworth Higginson. 
» Ditto. Page 332. 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 59 

European Statistics, so that I have generally been able 
to count at night twelve hours of private study and pri- 
vate instruction. This has only sharpened not satisfied 
my appetite. I have laid out for myself a course of more 
diligent labors the next semester. I shall then be at least 
eight hours in the lecture rooms, beginning at six in the 
morning. I must contrive, besides, to devote eight hours 
to private study. I am not in the least Germanized, and 
yet it appalls me when I think of the difference between 
an education here and in America. 

News of the death of his mother in Ipswich in Novem- 
ber, 1816, reached Cogswell while he was suffering from 
the illness to which he alludes in the preceding letter. He 
was greatly shocked and fell into a profound melancholy. 
He wrote to Professor Farrar at Cambridge on March 
9th 1817 : 

I have been led to believe that nothing remains for me 
in life but to prepare for a traveller in some parts hith- 
erto little explored, where Science will be more use to me 
than Philology, History or Politics, and therefore I lay 
the ground work for more thorough geological, minera- 
logical and botanical knowledge. I have lived long 
enough upon my heart, I must begin to live upon my 
mind. A man who is bound to a particular spot by a 
family and a circle of friends, cannot be expected to pros- 
ecute researches into wildernesses and deserts, where 
dangers threaten him every hour ; but a man like myself, 
who is left in the prime of his life, almost alone in the 
world, who breaks no ties and gives pain to no heart if 
he wanders as wild as the lion of the forest, such a man, 
I say, is bound to sacrifice ease and comfort to bear fa- 
tigue and privation, to deaden his affections and roam in 
solitudes, to sacrifice health and life, for the good of his 
fellow-beings. I think I hear the call and I shall prepare 
to obey it. 

His romantic dream of loneliness and hardship in ex- 
ploring strange and unknown countries in the interests 
of Science beguiled him for a moment. He lacked the 
physical vigor, the resolute constancy of purpose, the ca- 
pacity to endure solitude, essential to such a task. He 
loved to study text-book and specimen, and to explore 



60 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

fields and mountains in brief summer excursions, but he 
enjoyed the society of his fellows too well ever to isolate 
himself from them. Six weeks later we find him breaking 
into his heroic scheme of study, and running away to 
Weimar to seek an interview with the great Goethe. 

I went to Weimar almost for the sole purpose of seeing 
Goethe, but he was absent on a visit to Jena, where I pur- 
sued him and obtained an audience. From all that I had 
heard of him I was prepared to meet with the most re- 
pulsive reception, but as I actually experienced the very 
opposite you will naturally infer that I felt not a little 
flattered, and therefore will not be surprised if I should 
give you a more favorable picture of him than you find 
in the "Edinburgh Review." I sent him my letters of in- 
troduction with a note, asking when he would allow me to 
wait upon him. In one of the letters it was observed that 
I had some fondness for mineralogy, and was desirous of 
seeing the great cabinet belonging to the society of which 
he is President at Jena. In a few moments he returned 
me an answer that he would meet me in the rooms of the 
Society at noon, and there show me all that was to be 
seen. I liked this, as it evinced some degree of modesty 
in him inasmuch as it implied that there was something 
besides himself worthy of my notice, and it was very po- 
lite, too, in offering to take upon himself the trouble of 
going through the explanation of a collection, filling nu- 
merous and large apartments. At noon, then, I went to 
meet this great giant of German literature, the creator 
and sole governor of their taste. His exterior was in 
every respect difl'erent from the conceptions I had 
formed. A grand and graceful form worthy of a knight 
of the days of chivalry, with a dignity of manners that 
marked the court rather than the closet, such as belong 
to Goethe, are not often the external characteristics of a 
man of letters. Soon after being introduced to him, with 
the politeness of a real gentleman he turned the conver- 
sation to America and spoke of its hopes and promises 
in a manner that showed it had been the subject of his 
inquiries, and made juster and more rational observa- 
tions upon its literary pretentions and character than I 
ever heard from any man in Europe. We talked also of 
English and German literature. I told him of the interest 
v/e were now taking in the latter and found a very con- 
venient opportunity to introduce a few words of compli- 
ment to himself which was the least return I could make 
for his civility. 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 61 

That you may not think I have made too great progress 
in German, I just observe that this conversation, which 
lasted an hour, was carried on in French. . . . When we 
parted, he invited me to call on him, whenever I should be 
in Weimar. . . . 

In May he was in Gottingen again and on the 23d he 
wrote to George Ticknor, then in Paris, the tremendous 
program of daily work which then engaged him. 

I go on very regularly rising at four, study till six, 
then hear Hausman in Geognosy, who is prime, as well in 
the understanding as the explaining of his subject. At 
7, Schrader, who teaches me very little ; at 8, Welcker, who 
is exactly what you foretold he would be, abstract and 
obscure, always seeking to go where no man can follow 
him. ... I really like him as a man and respect him as 
a scholar — indeed I almost love him since a visit I made 
him one morning when he talked to me wholly of you, and 
talked as if he had a heart and had found out also in some 
degree the worth of yours. . . . From 9 to 11 I am at 
liberty to study — 11, hear Hausman privatissime, in Min- 
eralogy; this is accidental. A young man from Odessa 
whom I know, had begun the course and invited me to 
hear it with him. I could not refuse such an opportunity 
of prosecuting a favorite science. From 12 to 1, free, — 
1 to 2, in Botanic Garden in Library ; 2. Heeren who lec- 
tures well ; 3, with Reck ; 4, Saalfield in Northern History ; 
5, Blumenbach; 6, Benecke, ... At 7, comes my drill 
sergeant and so ends the day as to the lectures I hear. At 
8, 1 give Augustus one in Italian and study as much after- 
wards, before 12, as accident and circumstance allow. 
With all this I do not want for exercise. I must needs 
walk 10,000 steps, at least 4 miles every day. Saturday 
I make excursions with Schrader and Sunday with Haus- 
man, who makes nothing of carrying us a round of 15 or 
20 miles. ... 

The ink was hardly dry on this letter before he was off 
with Everett and Augustus Thorndike for a three days' 
flight to Hamburg and Bremen, and on June 13th, he 
confesses himself conscious of the fact that he is over- 
working and has been ordered out of town by his physi- 
cian to recruit. A delightful week with Everett in the 



62 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

Hartz mountains soon followed, and a longer tour which 
included Munich, Venice and Rome followed in Septem- 
ber. Ticknor welcomed him at Rome. He wrote to Mrs. 
Prescott on November 15, 1817 : 

This morning the pleasures of Rome have been doubled 
to me by the arrival of Cogswell and Thorndike. . . . 
Since either you or myself saw him last he has acquired 
a new passion, which is now eating up all his faculties. 
Botany was the one that preceded it, but this new at- 
tachment to mineralogy is much more violent, and to me 
really alarming since he seems now disposed to make it 
the business of his life, and pursue it in a manner that 
will necessarily separate him from his friends, and de- 
feat the usefulness they have so long expected from him. 
It is a perfect fanaticism in him, but it shall be no fault 
of mine if he is carried away by it, though, as I have 
never seen any passion in him so decided as this, I confess 
I do not begin with too sanguine hopes. 

The early summer of 1818 Mr. Cogswell spent in 
Switzerland, where he developed astonishing endurance 
in his pedestrian trips. "I spent the month of May in a 
solitary but happy ramble over this charming country," 
he wrote in June. Notwithstanding his engrossing pas- 
sion for botany and mineralogy, botanists and mineral- 
ogists wearied him, and he was glad to escape from them 
and give himself to the enjoyment of Alpine scenery. 
His letters at this time are full of his tramping. 

I must boast a little of my feats of walking. . . . One 
day I walked five and forty miles, and several forty and 
contented myself with a single chair in the evening, what 
do you think of that for a man whom all the world is ex- 
pecting to see in his grave from one month to another? 

Another to Mrs. Prescott on July 16th, tells his ex- 
ploits in fuller detail. 

I am remarkably well, better than at any time these 
ten years past, and what stronger proof could I give of 
it than an account of my pedestrious feats this summer. 
My walking in all, since May 1, amounts to about seven- 
teen hundred miles. ... No professed guide in this 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 63 

country has been able to follow me. I have grown fat 
and rosy notwithstanding all these labors. I have walked 
from 3 in the morning till noon without having tasted a 
particle of any kind of food, over a mountain which sepa- 
rates Italy from Switzerland, the most difficult of ascent 
of all I have seen, exposed to the burning heat of the sun, 
sometimes deep as I could wade in the snow, and all this 
after a continuation of such labors for weeks together, 
ten days of which in a country which could not afford me 
one mouthful of meat, and I bore it beyond example. . . . 
Throughout Switzerland my name is up as the greatest 
pedestrian of the age, and sure it is that I have performed 
feats which would have made my fortune in England. I 
boast of these things to you merely to give you proof of 
my excellent good condition. . . . 

With the approach of winter Mr. Cogswell was in 
England and Scotland after a week in Paris where he 
declared : "I had the longest and most stubborn fit of the 
blues that has ever preyed upon me in Europe." In the 
Lake District he made a visit at the house of the poet 
Southey, whom he found to be "exceedingly rich in con- 
versation, ready upon whatever subject was started, talk- 
ing well upon all and eloquently upon many, but discov- 
ering much less fancy than I had expected to find in a 
man who has created so many classes and hosts of imag- 
inary beings." In Edinburgh he had the entree of the 
best society, meeting men of renown in science, enjoying 
the rollicking delights of a festive party at a rich laird's 
in Fifeshire, and making the most friendly acquaintance 
with Scott. Sir Walter charmed him more than any poet 
or scholar he had ever met. "Nothing could inspire me 
with a higher relish for the cultivation of imagination 
and taste than the example of their charms in the elegant 
mind of Scott." 

"You would be charmed with this fellow," he wrote his 
sister-in-law. "There never was anybody like him for 
simplicity of manners, good humor, spirit in conversa- 
tion, variety of learning, anecdotes and all that consti- 
tutes a pleasant companion." In company with George 
Ticknor he was Scott's guest at Abbotsford several days 
in March, 1819. 



64 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

The Lewis and Clark Exploring Expedition up the 
Missouri to the unknown wilderness of the North- West 
left St. Louis in March. Indulging the fancy that he was 
adapted for work of this kind, Mr. Cogswell had written 
to the Secretary of State seeking permission to join this 
company, but he was too late. Most fortunately, for we 
cannot imagine how a man of his refined sensibilities and 
exquisite culture could have endured the rough compan- 
ionships, prolonged physical hardships and demoraliz- 
ing experiences, which would have been forced upon him 
by this extraordinary adventure. 

As his friend and patron, Mr. Thorndike urged his re- 
turn with the young Augustus to Germany for another 
six months or more, he came back to Gottingen and re- 
ceived a most cordial welcome from the renowned Pro- 
fessors of the University. 

Gratifying to my self-love, and comforting as a proof 
that these recluses have a great deal more heart than I 
before supposed. Blumenbach, good soul, made the wel- 
kin ring when he heard my name announced. . . . The 
Hofrath and Hofrattim Sartorius were no less cordial 
in their greeting; and I might add the same of Eichhorn, 
Heeren, Fiorillo, Stromeyer, Benecke, and above all 
Hausman. 

But Gottingen could not satisfy the restless scholar. 
Cogswell was soon at Dresden and at Weimar where he 
supped and talked till midnight with Goethe. At Toplitz 
he attended a ball at which his Majesty, the King of Prus- 
sia, Frederic William III, and many great dignitaries 
were present. He wrote his friend, Mrs. Prescott very 
facetiously : 

The King was dressed exactly like one of our country 
lawyers in court time, and forsooth at the end of the week 
when the clean shirt and waistcoat begin to lose their 
whiteness. He had on a Berlin Bond St. blue coat with 
gilt buttons, two of which were eminently conspicuous 
between the shoulders, it being somewhat short in the 
back, a quondam white waistcoat as I have said before, 
a pair of grays . . . and Suwarrow boots with tassels 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 65 

as long as the green ones which the Ipswich ladies made 
for the cushion of Dr. Dana's pulpit, a common round hat 
in one hand and a dandy-sticker in the other. It went 
against the grain to say "Your Majesty" to Royalty thus 
disguised, but as I was presented to him with the rest of 
the crowd, I could not dispense with it. 

Returning to Gottingen he received the degree of Doc- 
tor of Philosophy from the University. George Ban- 
croft, the future historian, was now a student, having 
been sent to Germany by Harvard College upon his grad- 
uation in 1817, to prepare himself for the service of the 
institution, and Mr. Cogswell became much attached to 
him. "It was a sad parting, too, with little Bancroft," 
he wrote from Leipzig in August. At Munich, by invita- 
tion of the Minister of State, he had a very interesting 
interview with the King of Bavaria, and hob-nobbed with 
the Russian minister. After a winter in Paris and a 
summer in Scotland, everywhere welcomed, petted, feast- 
ed, he arrived in Ipswich, where his sister Elizabeth kept 
the old homestead, at the end of October, 1820. 

Long residence and much travel abroad had not 
weaned him from the home of his boyhood. He wrote to 
bis sister in 1819, from Edinburgh: 

I have often thought since I was in Switzerland and in 
the Highlands amid the water scenery, that our own 
Wenham Pond, had it been in Europe and been called, as 
it certainly would be by some pretty and romantic name, 
would have been resorted to, as such spots are here, for 
there are many points upon it which are highly pictur- 
esque and charming. I call to mind, too, with equal sat- 
isfaction our Agawam River. How very prettily fringed 
with woods are its banks above the dam. Had we but a 
relish for nature we should never look so indifferently 
upon the thousand beauties which surround our native 
village. 

He wrote in a November letter from Ipswich : 

I have now come here once more to worship God, where 
1 first learned to lisp his praises. 



66 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

The venerable Dr. Dana was still in the pulpit of the 
South Church, though now in his seventy-eighth year. 
John Heard, the guardian of his youth, was hale and 
hearty, and many pleasant hours no doubt were spent in 
that fine family circle. Augustine Heard may have been 
there in the brief intervals between his voyages. Old 
haunts were revisited, old friendships revived. Nearly a 
year passed before this finished scholar was decided as 
to his calling. He dreamed again of a Rocky Mountain 
expedition with Major Long. Mr. Thorndike made press- 
ing offers, President Kirkland of Harvard desired that 
he should become Librarian, and a new Professorship in 
Mineralogy and another in Chemistry were opened to him 
as well. The salaries were small, $660 for the Library, 
$800 for the Chemistry, and the Professorship of Miner- 
alogy unendowed. But his cherished friends were there, 
Ticknor as Professor of Modern Languages and Belles 
Lettres, Everett as Professor of Greek. The re-arrange- 
ment of the library after the pattern of the German uni- 
versity appealed to him. The scientific teaching was in 
line with his tastes. Very naturally he accepted the Har- 
vard appointments. Within a year, however, his insta- 
bility began to reveal itself. He wrote to his sister in 
March, 1822 : 

I am anxious to finish my work in the library, being 
resolved to give it up as soon as I shall have completed 
the arrangement unless something should happen to give 
me a situation of more value here in connection with it. 
The Professorship of Mineralogy is merely a nominal 
one, there being no fund for its support. 

His dissatisfaction soon became evident. He re-ar- 
ranged and catalogued the library admirably, but chafed 
at the restraint put upon him by the Corporation, and 
was vexed by their want of liberal views. He felt that 
his work was not appreciated. His passion for miner- 
alogy had spent itself. 

George Bancroft had returned from Gottingen and 
had taught Greek a year in the College, when he, too, 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 67 

realized that he was a misfit, and the two friends planned 
to establish a model school for boys. 

While in Switzerland in 1818, Mr. Cogswell had be- 
come greatly interested in Fellenberg's famous school 
at Hofwyl, and made several visits to study his methods. 
He visited Pestalozzi's academy as well. He felt that 
American schools, as well as colleges, had much to learn 
from European institutions, and turned with enthusiasm 
from Harvard, hide-bound with hoary traditions, cum- 
bered with weaknesses and deficiencies of which it was 
unconscious, and would not be convinced, to a new school 
where he would have a free hand to work out his own 
schemes of education. 

Round Hill, in the town of Northampton, was se- 
lected for the site of the new school, and in June, 1823, 
Cogswell and Bancroft issued their Prospectus. A few 
paragraphs will indicate the scheme of the proposed 
school. 

The institution which we propose to establish is de- 
signed to furnish occupation for those years, which in 
France are spent at a college and in Germany at a gym- 
nasium. A boy who has completed his ninth year is old 
enough to commence his regular studies, and to delay 
them longer would be to waste precious time, and 
(what is of still more moment) the period when good 
habits are most easily formed. For learning the modern 
languages these years are so valuable that the loss of 
them is irreparable. . . . 

On the other side we decline assuming the charge of 
any one who has already completed his twelfth year, and 
we conceive that a regard for the success of our school 
requires of us, on this point to be explicit and decided. 

. . . The methods of discipline and government must 
be parental. There is a difference between severity and 
strictness. The one may be gained by the frequent use of 
punishments, while the other is best secured by gentle- 
ness and example. The relation of the pupil and tutor is 
that of the weak to the strong, of him who needs in- 
struction and defense to him who is able to impart them. 
Keeping this principle in mind we shall endeavor to 
govern by persuasion and persevering kindness. These 
will be sufficient for all who are neither perverse nor dis- 



68 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

inclined to study; for others the institution is not de- 
signed, and obstinate disobedience on the part of the pu- 
pil must ever be a reason for his dismissal. 

Regarding the scheme of studies, it continues: 

To read, to write and to speak English with correct- 
ness, and if possible with elegance, are the first and most 
necessary objects of instruction. History and geo- 
graphy are studies to be commenced early and never to 
be relinquished. 

The study of the classics was next in order. Latin 
would be required of all. Greek would be optional with 
the parents of pupils. Mathematics would be made an 
optional study largely, according to the taste and capacity 
of the individual. While the value of scientific studies 
was recognized, the study of languages was regarded as 
the proper basis of education. 

As the fear of God is the most sacred principle of ac- 
tion, there is none which should be developed with more 
care. Each day will begin and end with devotional ex- 
ercises. The Lord's day must be sacredly observed and 
the exercises of worship constantly attended. 

These were high ideals and very original in the main. 
No innovation was greater, perhaps, than the substitu- 
tion of gentleness in discipline for the brutal punish- 
ments that were then counted essential to the proper 
management of a school. At the celebrated Andover 
Academy Rev. Mr. Pemberton was praying with refrac- 
tory students and then administering the cow hide, rous- 
ing intense personal hatred and contempt for his Phari- 
saic show of religion.' In every district school in the 
Commonwealth, the winter term was a prolonged fight 
between the school master and the husky country boys 
who came for a few weeks of schooling. The departure 
from the regular routine of study, and the adjusting of 
the work to the individual taste and ability was hardly 
less striking. Mr. Cogswell's friends might have had 
just fears that after his prolonged studies in the German 
University, his friendly mingling with men of the highest 
rank in literature and science, his methodical work as a 
college librarian, he was now attempting a task, for 

' Pago 37. 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 69 

which he seemed ill-adapted and which would prove to 
be intolerably burdensome. All such forebodings were 
happily disappointed. 

When the school opened on October 1st, 1823, twenty- 
five boys were enrolled, fifteen living in the family and 
ten day scholars from the village. They came from fami- 
lies of wealth and fine culture, rejoicing no doubt in their 
escape from governesses and tutors and promising them- 
selves much fun in the new school with its easy disci- 
pline. Mr. Cogswell wrote his friend Ticknor on the 
twelfth of the month. He confessed that he saw plenty 
of hard work awaiting him : 

Obtuseness to be sharpened, obstinacy to be subdued, 
roughness to be smoothed, rudeness to be snubbed, hab- 
its of idleness to be corrected, new notions of study to be 
infused, or worse than all, mind to be created. I soon 
found that the only course to be followed was to begin 
de novo with every one and to consider them as opening 
a book for the first time. 

We rise at six and meet soon after for prayers, study 
till eight, at which hour we breakfast, then play till nine, 
from nine till twelve, Stunden (hours for lessons), dine 
at half past twelve, play till two, from two to five Stun- 
den, sup at half past five, play till seven, and then assem- 
ble for the evening occupation, which thus far has been 
reading only, as there was scarce one among the number 
who could read English decently. A little before nine 
they are dismissed and go to bed. Thus far all has gone 
on perfectly smooth, though a more patience-exhausting 
task was never taken in hand. 

He wrote later in October regarding his plan of in- 
struction : 

My principle in instruction is to send a boy back to 
his place for a single error, which he might have avoided 
by care and diligence, and there is not yet one among the 
whole whom I do not send back half a dozen times in 
every lesson. I do not form any classes, but allow every 
one to get as much of any book which he is studying as 
he can do in the time assigned for that exercise, telling 
him that he may recite as soon as he is ready but cau- 



70 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

tioning him at the same time, that the least failure sends 
him back, and obliges him to wait till the rest have been 
brought to trial. 

You see, in this way, we lose the common motive of 
emulation, but we substitute for a desire of relative su- 
periority, that of absolute excellence; and you know, we 
derive no aid from the fear of the lash. These two cir- 
cumstances increase our labor very much for the present, 
but I am convinced the result will be worth the pains. 

After two months, Mr. Cogswell was able to write : 

We have no refractory boys, none who may be called 
so much as difficult to govern ; in no case has any disre- 
gard or disobedience of our commands been shown, nor 
have we at any time seen an instance where more could 
have been effected by the use of corporeal punishment, 
than we have done by verbal reproof. Still our task is 
a most arduous one, for although our children are docile, 
they are wild as young colts, and require to be constantly 
curbed and guided by a very tight rein. In the school- 
room they draw upon me for my full stock of patience 
and that, not because they are noisy and rebellious, but 
because they are most unreasonably dull. I am sure Job 
could not have stood out under such a trial. 

His "dull" scholars, as he is bound to call them, made 
notable progress. In a little more than two months Mr. 
Bancroft 

had carried five or six through Virgil and got them along 
a little way in Greek. — One of mine has gone through 
Kennett's Roman Antiquities with care, two-thirds of 
Nepos, Murray's English Grammar and learned the prin- 
ciples of the structure of an English sentence of which he 
knew not a word before, and will finish Watts on the Im- 
provement of the Mind. He is also young, not yet eleven, 
and by no means among the most studious but among the 
brightest. 

But though the work in the class room taxed his pa- 
tience, he found great delight in the company of his boys. 
He was their leader in sports and games. He laid out a 
running track round the woods and made his mile in six 
and a half minutes. They had a great deal of jumping, 



J 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 71 

leaping and climbing. Every Saturday afternoon they 
had a tramp from twelve to sixteen miles. The day be- 
fore Thanksgiving he took six of them on an excursion 
to Hartford, walking twenty-one miles before noon and 
riding the remainder of the journey. After a round of 
sight-seeing they started back and arrived in the even- 
ing, having walked about fifty miles in all. He accus- 
tomed them to disregard cold, or snow, or rain, and to en- 
dure pain with Spartan fortitude. One little fellow, after 
finishing fourteen miles on this hike, complained of a 
sore heel. Mr. Cogswell remarks: 

I stopped and examined his foot, and found that the 
ends of some nails had worn through his stocking and 
had made his heels bleed a little, but as there was 
no remedy, I told him that we had but seven miles further 
to walk, and that he must bear it; he said not a word 
more of the pain. To pay him for his fortitude I bought 
him a new pair of shoes at Hartford, and with them he 
came back as fresh as any of us. On the home-stretch 
they trudged over the meadows at the rate of four miles 
and a half an hour, in darkness so dense that they could 
not see where to step. 

They were obliged to saw and split their own wood and 
make their own fires, in the intervals of skating and 
coasting. They had a gymnasium with excellent equip- 
ment. But summer brought the great pleasures. Many 
years afterward, Thomas Gold Appleton' recalled with 
enthusiasm Mr. Cogswell's generous provision for the 
amusement of the boys. He bought horses and they 
scoured the plain like a phalanx of cavalry. He estab- 
lished a boy-village which bore the happy name of Crony 
Village. Bricks, mortar and lumber were furnished by 
him, and the boys built their houses, with hearths and 
chimnies, and cooked and ate their suppers. In August, 
he would start with forty boys with a huge wagon, big 
enough to carry twenty-five, the rest on foot. " The ride 
and tie" of pioneer days was the order of the march, and 
the weak or wearied ones had a spell in the wagon, and 

1 "Old and New," July. 1872. 



72 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

those who had been rested by their ride took the road 
again. Thus they made their tour to Boston and Nahant, 
or to Saybrook, or elsewhere, camping at night by the 
roadside. Mr. Bancroft, a large corps of native teachers 
for the modern languages, German, French, Italian and 
Spanish, and skilled instructors in the classics, did most 
of the teaching. Mr. Cogswell was the organizer, man- 
ager and father of the community. His department es- 
pecially was that of moral and affectionate influence, be- 
sides which he was head farmer, builder, gardener and 
treasurer of the place. 

It is no wonder that the Round Hill School gained 
great popularity. Pupils flocked to it in such numbers 
that many had to be turned away. It was the Mecca of 
educators, including Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar. The 
reverence and affection of the boys for Mr. Cogswell 
knew no bounds. But the clouds began to gather in a few 
years. Financially it was a losing investment and Mr. 
Bancroft withdrew in 1830. An Act of Incorporation 
was secured and an attempt was made to sell the stock, 
and thus divide the burden among the friends of the 
school. In December, 1831, Mr. Cogswell's sister, Eliza- 
beth, who had been with him from the beginning, was 
taken away by death. 

He wrote to Mrs. Ticknor : 

God has taken from me my only sister and my 
only near relative, and never was there a kinder, more 
disinterested, and more devoted attachment than that 
which she has ever manifested to me. For years I am 
sure she has not had a wish which was not connected with 
my happiness and prosperity. . . . This bereavement 
does indeed leave me a solitary being upon earth. . . . 

In the summer of 1832, his losses amounted to $20,000, 
his work and worry had told severely upon his health, and 
he realized that the school must be given up. His friends 
rallied most generously, conveyed their shares to him, 
and endeavored in every way to make it possible for him 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 73 

to continue, but he felt that he could go no further and 
the school was closed in 1834. 

No man was ever more fortunate in his opportunities 
or richer and more blessed in his friends. He was in- 
vited at once to take charge of several schools, and spent 
a short time in Raleigh with a boys' school with gratify- 
ing success, but too great a strain upon his health. Busi- 
ness propositions were offered him. An old friend, Mr. 
Samuel Ward, whose three sons had been pupils at Round 
Hill, pressed him to come into his family and perform a 
merely nominal service, to save his independence, at a 
generous salary. But the invitation of Mr. Francis C. 
Gray, son of the Salem merchant and old time friend, 
William Gray, to be his companion in Europe for a year, 
with no duties and large emoluments, prevailed. 

On his return, while a guest at Mr. Ward's, he came to 
know Mr. John Jacob Astor, and his son, William B., and 
gradually the plan of establishing the great Astor Li- 
brary took shape. The Senior Astor had decided to give 
or bequeath some three or four hundred thousand dollars 
to some great public institution and at Mr. Cogswell's 
suggestion he agreed to create and endow a library. 
Eventually Mr. Cogswell entered into an agreement to 
go abroad and buy books. As Mr. Astor wavered in his 
plan of proceeding at once with the library, Washington 
Irving, who was about sailing for Spain as the American 
Minister, pressed Mr. Cogswell to go with him as Secre- 
tary of Legation. Irving wrote to the State Department: 

He is a gentleman with whom I am on confidential 
terms of intimacy, and I know of no one who by his va- 
rious acquirements, his prompt sagacity, his knowledge 
of the world, his habits of business and his obliging dis- 
position is so calculated to give me that counsel aid and 
companionship so important in Madrid, where a stranger 
is more isolated than in any other capital in Europe. 

He received the appointment and was preparing to go, 
but at the last moment, Mr. Astor agreed to enter into 
a contract with him for a salary of $2000 a year while en- 



•74 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

gaged upon the catalogue and awaiting tbe completion of 
the building, and a guarantee of the eventual librarian- 
ship with a salary of $2500 a year. Thereupon he re- 
signed his office as Secretary, and settled to the work 
upon the library. 

While the librarianship was still in the balance, we 
catch a glimpse of him at Cambridge. Longfellow jotted 
in his Diary' on August 14, 1838 : 

Cogswell is here and is truly a God-send. He is not 
yet appointed Librarian at Astoria. 

After repeated journeys to Europe to buy books, in 
January, 1854, twelve years after he began his labors, the 
doors of the Astor Library were opened. The toil he in- 
sisted on performing was engrossing. He lived in a 
room, which had been fitted for his occupancy in the 
building, and here he continued his work far into the 
night. He rarely left his post. The completion of the 
catalogue allowed him no rest. Occasional week-ends at 
Rokeby, Mr. Astor's home on the Hudson, or at Newport, 
or with his beloved Washington Irving at Irvington were 
his only respite. He wrote George Ticknor in October, 
1859: 

August was a month of very severe labor for me. Every 
book in the Library changed its place, and consequently 
passed through my hands for rearrangement. Never in 
all my life have I worked so many hours of so many days 
continuously without any respite except for meals and 
sleep, and always on my feet. I may add that never in 
all my life could I have stood it, as I have now done. . . . 

He was then seventy-three years old. Two years later 
he resigned his office and removed to Cambridge, where 
he made his home most happily with Mrs. Haskins, the 
niece of his wife, who, with her husband and children 
was about taking residence there. 

Twelve quiet years remained. He was frequently a 

» Life of Longfellow, by Samuel Longfellow. I: 294. 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 75 

guest in the homes of his many friends. The poet Long' 
fellow often mentions him in his Diary'. 

January 12, 1866. 

Cogswell and T. at dinner. Lowell could not come on 
account of his sore throat. 

May 5, 1867. 

On my walk met Henry James, who said some pleasant 
words about the translation of Dante, and afterwards 
Cogswell, who did the same. 

July 22, 1871. 

Cogswell comes down (to Nahant) in the boat. Dear 
old man, how glad I am to see him. 

His old pupils loved to do him honor. "Tom" Apple- 
ton and some twenty others of his Round Hill boys ten- 
dered him a dinner at the Parker House in 1864, at which 
he read a very tender address. An affectionate letter 
from J. Lothrop Motley, the historian, who had been his 
pupil, reached him in the following year. 

There was singular fitness in his return to Cambridge. 
Though his connection with the College as Librarian, and 
Professor of Mineralogy lasted only two years, his con- 
tribution to the development of higher ideals was of pro- 
found value. Thomas Wentworth Higginson in his es- 
say: "Gottingen and Harvard a Century ago," calls at- 
tention to the fact that Harvard was greatly influenced 
by German University methods a century ago and that 
this influence was exerted through these three men, Jo- 
seph Green Cogswell, Edward Everett and George Tick- 
nor. 

But while the immediate results of personal service 
to the college on the part of this group of remarkable men 
may have been inadequate, — since even Ticknor, ere 
parting, had with the institution a disagreement never 
yet fully elucidated — yet their collective influence both on 
Harvard University and on American education was 
enormous. They helped to break up that intellectual 
sterility which had begun to show itself during the isola- 

1 In Life by Samuel Longfellow. III. 79, 91, 165. 



76 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

tion of a merely colonial life ; they prepared the way for 
the vast modern growth of colleges, schools, and libraries 
in this country, and indirectly helped that birth of a lit- 
erature which gave us Irving, Cooper, Bryant, and the 
'North American Review,' and culminated later in the 
brilliant Boston circle of authors almost all of whom were 
Harvard men and all of whom had felt the Harvard in- 
fluence. 

Mr. Cogswell's work at the Round Hill School was an 
inspiring and far-reaching influence in the development 
of higher ideals and finer methods in schools for children 
and youth. The superficiality, the coarseness, the brutal- 
ity, that characterized far too frequently the schools of 
his day were rebuked by the thoroughness, the refine- 
ment, the delicacy of his system. The noble profession of 
teaching was lifted by him to more abundant honor. The 
joy and privilege of school life were revealed to the ris- 
ing generation. 

It is a singular and striking coincidence that at the 
very time when Mr. Cogswell was doing this pioneer 
work in the education of boys, Zilpah Grant and Mary 
Lyon were striking out new paths in the education of 
women in the Ipswich Academy, with less pomp and cir- 
cumstance than attended the Round Hill experiment, but 
with no less originality and power. Year by year a 
company of earnest young women went forth from the 
Ipswich school, inspired by the precepts and example of 
their great teachers, with glowing enthusiasm for their 
work as teachers, in every part of our country and in dis- 
tant lands. Miss Grant endeavored to establish in Ips- 
wich a great Seminary for young women, thoroughly 
equipped and well endowed. She failed, but Mary Lyon, 
catching her spirit, raised the necessary funds with in- 
credible toil and exhaustless patience, and perpetuated 
the spirit and methods of the Ipswich school at Mount 
Holyoke. 

Ipswich may well be proud of her brilliant son, and her 
splendid school, and her great contribution through them 
to a broader, wiser and more effective training of the 
young in the schools of America. 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 77 

Mr. Cogswell's labors in connection with the Astor Li- 
brary were a fitting culmination of his endeavors for the 
better education. This great library, the first to be es- 
tablished in America, was an incentive to the founding 
of others. It furnished scholars with the means of carry- 
ing on their studies, encouraged young students to make 
researches in many fields of knowledge, and opened the 
way for a great multitude of children and youths into 
the realm of books, there to discover that the pleasures of 
the intellect were finer and more satisfying than the 
pleasures of sense. 

One day, in his serene old age, he came back to Ipswich 
to visit the family burial place and select a spot for his 
own final rest. Fifty years had passed since his last visit, 
but as he walked about the streets he remembered every 
house that was standing when he was a school boy and 
the name of the family which occupied it. Writing to 
a friend of his return to his early home, he mentioned 
that he had recently transcribed from memory a little 
poem which his pastor, old Dr. Dana, had given him to 
speak when he was eight years old, seventy-five years be- 
fore, and which he had never seen in print or manu- 
script and had never before come into his mind. 

In the afternoon of a quiet Sunday, November 26th, 
1871, he breathed his last, at the great age of eighty-five 
years and two months, having retained his faculties 
almost perfectly to the very end. Hon. George S. Hillard, 
one of the assistants of the school, closed a tender tribute 
with the very apt lines from Dryden's Oedipus : 

Of no Distemper, of no Blast he dy'd 
But fell like Autumn Fruit that mellow'd long, 
Ev'n wonder'd at because he dropt no sooner. 

Fate seemed to wind him up for four score Years, 
Yet freshly ran he on ten Winters more. 
Till like a Clock worn out with eating Time 
The Wheels of weary Life at last stood still. 



78 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

He had selected for his burial a spot in the South Ceme- 
tery, overlooking the scenes he loved, the winding river 
and the hills beyond. Here his old pupils erected over 
his grave a simple but beautiful memorial bearing the in- 
scriptions : 

Joseph Green Cogswell 
Born at Ipswich, Sept. 27, 1786. 
Died in Cambridge, Nov. 26, 1871. 

In Affectionate Remembrance 

Erected by Pupils of Round Hill School 

Northampton, Mass. 

As a fitting token of his affectionate regard for his na- 
tive town, and an apt expression of his life long devotion 
to the higher education, he bequeathed the town the sum 
of four thousand dollars for the benefit of the old Ipswich 
Grammar School, which he attended in his boyhood. It 
was then merged with the town High School, and when 
the new Manning School building was erected his legacy 
was expended with other funds in its construction. 




DANIEL TREADWELL 

I 791 -1872 

From an oil portrait 



IV. 
DANIEL TREADWELL 

Daniel Treadwell, the third of the South side boys to 
win a distinguished place in the world, five years younger 
than Joseph Green Cogswell, and six years the junior of 
Augustine Heard, was born on October 10th, 1791. He 
was the son of Capt. Jabez Treadwell and Elizabeth, 
daughter of Isaac Dodge, a prominent merchant and a 
patriotic citizen, who rendered many valuable services to 
his town in the long Revolutionary struggle. 

In a short Autobiography written by Mr. Treadwell in 
1854, he tells pathetically of his early life. 

My father and all his predecessors to the first settler 
were farmers — hard working and respectable men, none 
of whom have left any distinguishing mark either of 
their virtues or vices upon the community in which they 
lived. My mother, Elizabeth Dodge, was the second wife 
of my father, and died when I was two years old, leaving 
me and two older brothers (Isaac Dodge and Jabez) the 
oldest of eight years, without any female relative to care 
for us. My early years were therefore, no doubt, much 
neglected, as my father's housekeepers, however well dis- 
posed, possessed neither the education nor the affection 
required to make the most of a child, and my father, who 
was fifty-two years old at the time of my birth, was much 
occupied in the care of his farm. My father — I can re- 
member him well, although he died when I was but eleven 
years old — was a staid and sensible man — a model farm- 
er, exact and punctual in all his affairs. The active per- 
iod of his life fell upon the hard times of the Revolution, 
during the greater part of which his three brothers were 
engaged in the army. Of the bravery of one of these 
brothers, Capt. William Treadwell of the Artillery, I re- 
member hearing many stories when I was a boy. My fa- 
ther, by his industry and prudence with but little assist- 
ance from his sons, acquired a property in land, which 
at the time of his death was valued at about seven thou- 
sand dollars. . . , 



80 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

The farm included land on both sides of the romantic 
lane, which leads to "Old England," a portion of which 
is now included in the beautiful estate of Moritz B. Phil- 
ipp, Esq. 

Daniel Treadwell sold the homestead' to Ephraim Fel- 
lows in 1814, who tore down the old dwelling with its 
leanto roof and built the new house, which was inherited 
and occupied by his son, the late Ephraim Fellows. It 
was a simple home, indeed, with its churns and cheese 
moats, its spinning wheels for flax and wool, its great 
weaving loom, its nine linen sheets for the best bed, the 
seven cotton and linen for more ordinary service, but 
for every night family use, the thirty tow sheets, and nine 
tow pillow cases, the goodly store of pewter and brass 
candlesticks. But a touch of delicacy and refinement is 
given by the wearing apparel, itemized in the inventory 
of Captain Treadwell's estate : the slate colored silk gown, 
the light colored silk gown, the red cloth riding hood and 
the small red cloak that formed part of the cherished 
wardrobe of the good wife ; and the blue, black and dark 
green coats, the buff colored and velvet vest and 
breeches, the black-knit breeches, the silver sleeve but- 
tons, knee and shoe buckles, which the Captain wore on 
Sabbath days and great occasions. 

The motherless lads, left to their own devices, found 
pleasure enough no doubt in their nutting expeditions 
into the neighboring pastures, their rambles in the 
woods, and their excursions down the river. "Tread- 
well's Island," as it is still called, was part of their fa- 
ther's farm, and a dory and oars are noted in the inven- 
tory. So we can imagine the many long summer days 
they spent in rowing and fishing, and berrying on the 
Island, and little Daniel, a delicate boy, storing up those 
reserves of health and strength, which tided him over 
many seasons of weakness and illness in his busy mature 

> The estate of Capt. Jabez was divided equally between his three sons, 
but Isaac Dodge and Daniel Inherited the share of Jabez, who died In 
1806. Isaac Dodge Treadwell sold his undivided half to William Jenyss 
of Newburyport in 1807. Partition was made In 1808, and the homestead 
fell to Daniel. 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 81 

life. Many a winter evening was spent happily and 
profitably about the cheerful fireplace, listening to the 
stories of danger, hardship and courage of the Revolu- 
tionary soldiers, which stirred their young blood to 
strong and noble living. 

Capt. Jabez died on January 13th, 1803. Isaac Dodge, 
the eldest son, then in his eighteenth year, was already 
serving his apprenticeship to a silversmith, and as the 
custom was, no doubt lived in his family. Jabez, the second 
son, sixteen years old, had probably begun his sea faring. 
Daniel, a little past his eleventh year, was left homeless 
but not friendless. Col. Nathaniel Wade, a distinguished 
Revolutionary officer, and a most estimable man, long 
the friend of the family, was appointed executor of the 
estate and guardian of the three sons. He took Daniel 
at once into his own family, his share of his father's es- 
tate being sufficient for his support. Three years later 
his brother, Jabez, died at Havana, on his first voyage as 
mate of a brig. 

Some of the happiest j^'ears of Daniel's life were spent 
in the old gambrel-roofed Wade mansion, under the great 
elm trees. He always held Col. Wade in the most affec- 
tionate regard. In his informal will, which he made in 
1819, just before sailing for Europe, he included the 
item : "To Nathaniel Wade, Esq., (as a token of my es- 
teem for this respectable man, who has so long extended 
towards me his kind offices and this without consanguin- 
ity but from the benevolence of his nature) I give my 
gold sleeve-buttons, which were my father's." Writing 
in later years, he spoke of him as "honored and beloved 
throughout the County for his sound judgment, his per- 
fect integrity, and his unfailing benevolence." The con- 
stant and affectionate care of Mrs. Wade was a new ex- 
perience to the boy who had never known a mother's 
love. 

He went to school in the old hip-roofed building, now 
a stable, but then the Ipswich Grammar School, taught 
by Samuel Dana, son of Rev. Dr. Joseph Dana, then by 



82 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

Amos Choate, and later by the veteran soldier school 
master, Major Thomas Burnham. He must have been 
a precocious scholar, and his mechanical tastes revealed 
themselves at a very early age. The Town of Ipswich 
bought a fire engine when he was only eleven years old. 
One of his schoolmates, Mr. Samuel N. Baker, said : 

This attracted the attention of the school-boys and of 
Daniel Treadwell in particular, who resolved to make 
one. When finished, he announced to the boys that he 
would try it and exhibit it during the vacation. When 
the time came, the boys assembled and we drew it to a 
two story building; we went to work, forced the water 
on to the roof and with a shout of joy pronounced it a 
success. 

His school-fellows remembered him as a quiet boy, but 
a general favorite. He was the treasurer in all the small 
financial transactions of school-life, because of the exact- 
ness of his accounts and his absolute truthfulness. His 
temperament was imaginative to such a degree, that the 
boys were wont to sit in a circle around him in the pleas- 
ant summer evenings, while he delighted them with the 
tale of purely imaginary adventures. 

For two years after his father's death, he attended 
school in Newburyport, walking to Ipswich on Saturday 
afternoon to spend Sunday at Col. Wade's. In 1805, 
when he was nearly fifteen, his brother, Isaac, having 
completed his apprenticeship, established himself as a 
jeweller and silversmith in Newburyport. Daniel's ap- 
titude with tools naturally inclined him to some mechan- 
ical trade, and he eagerly embraced the opportunity of 
acquiring the trade of the silversmith by becoming an 
apprentice to his brother. It was an unfortunate ven- 
ture. Isaac was only twenty years old. His youth and 
inexperience invited failure. Unexpected diflficulties soon 
beset him; he lost his courage, neglected his work, was 
cheated out of a large amount and in two years gave up 
his business. He went to New York, and afterwards to 
Caraccas, where he became Director of the Mint and the 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 83 

Department of Mining under the Government, and per- 
ished in the great earthquake of 1812. These were un- 
happy and unprofitable years to Daniel as well, though 
his brother treated him with the utmost kindness. But 
he had made progress in his trade, and soon found an op- 
portunity to continue his apprenticeship with Captain 
Jesse Churchill, a gold and silversmith, in Boston. While 
a member of his brother's family, he had laid the foun- 
dation for the studious habits, that characterized his 
whole after life. There were few books in his father's 
house, the Bible, Robinson Crusoe, some translations 
from Virgil, and a few tales. But his favorite volume 
was a strange choice, Nathan Bailey's Dictionary, which 
he read and studied. In after life he said that he had 
gained more from it than from any other book he ever 
owned. In his leisure hours at Newburyport, he chanced 
upon Pope's and Milton's Poems, some plays of Shakes- 
peare, the works of Sterne and Smollet, and read with 
avidity these and whatever else came in his way. On his 
removal to Boston, he had access to a library, and began 
a systematic course of reading in history and the Eng- 
lish poets from Spenser to Scott. Physics and metaphy- 
sics also engaged him. 

In his Autobiography he says: 

When about nineteen I took to geometry and algebra, 
and went unassisted through Euclid and Bonnycastle's 
Algebra. Although I could not give my mind to the 
works of gold and silver that I wrought, I was always at- 
tentive to the operations of machinery whenever I saw 
them. Before I was fifteen I had gone through the nec- 
essary exercise of puzzling over the problem of perpet- 
ual motion. During this labor I perceived, without aid 
or instruction from anyone, the great principle of vir- 
tual velocities. This rediscovery or untaught perception 
of the principle of virtual velocities, is sometimes given 
as a mark of great mental power. I am inclined to think 
it not an uncommon occurrence, and that most young per- 
sons of a little more than medium talent are capable of 
it. ... In this way, working with my hands upon what 
did not interest my thoughts, and bending my mind with 
the utmost force upon a world remote from my business, 
I reached my majority. 



84 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

A companion of those years wrote of him : 

He read everything good of its sort ; for everything he 
found an appetite. Every evening and every moment 
when not at work he spent over his books. His head was 
so full of Plutarch and poetry and the philosophers, that 
he gave no time to the companionship of his acquain- 
tance, and soon came to live in a world that most of them 
had no conception of. Often the young workman was 
found hammering on a piece of plate, with his eyes per- 
haps wandering from his work to a volume of Hume or 
some other instructive writer, which was usually open 
upon the bench before him. 

So bright and original a mind could never content it- 
self with the hum drum routine of any trade. The only 
tool of the silversmith was the hammer, by the skilful 
use of which a flat sheet of silver was shaped into any 
desired form. The art had made no advances from the 
early ages when the gold and silver vessels were cunning- 
ly fashioned for Solomon's temple or Pharaoh's palace. 
Daniel Treadwell soon devised "a set of forms or 'swages' 
between which the rolled plate of silver was laid and by 
a few blows or strong pressure received the desired form 
with great exactness." 

His apprenticeship completed, he entered into partner- 
ship with his employer and remained with him about 
four years. The War of 1812 caused great depression 
of business, and young Treadwell turned to a new 
scheme. Next door to Mr. Churchill's was the shop of 
Phineas Dow, a man of skill and ingenuity, some ten 
years older than himself. Here the two mechanics la- 
bored evenings for more than a year in inventing and 
building a machine to make the common screws, used in 
cabinet and carpentry work. Up to this time, in Ameri- 
ca, at least, they had been made only by hand, slowly and 
imperfectly. When this machine was finished, in an im- 
perfect form, it was put in operation in a mill at Saugus, 
by the aid of a friend, General William H. Sumner of 
Boston. Mr. Treadwell says in his Autobiography : 

It performed the operation of making a screw entirely 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 85 

without the aid of the hand; taking in the wire at one 
end, it delivered a finished screw at the other. It was 
therefore very complicate, but much admired for its in- 
genuity. It was never made really practically success- 
ful in the form in which we made it, but it contained 
many of the elements upon which the screw machinery 
of the present time is constructed. 

Had the War of 1812 been prolonged, the ingenious in- 
ventors would have had a monopoly and reaped large 
profits. The quick return of peace, however, was fol- 
lowed with the reappearance of imported screws in abun- 
dance. The machine was sent to Philadelphia in 1817, 
and was sold with the right of using it for about $5000.' 

From his screw machine to a nail machine was an easy 
step. He devised a machine which received the red hot 
nail rods at one end and turned out the wrought nails, 
headed and pointed, at the other. An Englishman con- 
tested the priority for a machine of his own invention, 
though it did not produce a perfect nail. Mr. Tread well 
had neither the means nor the disposition to contest his 
claim, and abandoned the business. He seems to have re- 
entered the field with this or an improved machine, how- 
ever, as he was employed on the Mill Dam of the Boston 
Water Company from 1824 to 1827 in the manufacture 
of nails, though without great profit. 

The toil and anxiety incident to the construction of his 
inventions, coupled with his work at a trade, which he 
confessed did not interest him, proved too great for his 
delicate constitution. At times he had been obliged to 
give up all work and seek rest and recreation in the home 
of his boyhood. He had spent a whole summer in a 
cruise along the coast of Maine. Finding it impossible 
to regain his strength, he withdrew from his partner- 
ship with Captain Churchill in February, 1817. 

In the following winter, he turned to the distinctly in- 

1 As in the case of so many other inventions, Mr. Treadwell's machine 
seems to have been entirely overlooked in modern encyclopaedias in their 
story of the development of the great modern industry of screw making 
by machinery. The first practical machine was Invented by an American 
about 1836; but Mr. Treadwell's machine, patented nineteen years be- 
fore, was a successful though imperfect invention. Had he retained and 
perfected it, it might have beon made a commercial success. 



86 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

tellectual pursuits, which had always fascinated him 
though he had been unable to gratify his tastes hitherto 
as he desired. Under the direction of a native French 
teacher, he began the study of French. He added to this 
the study of medicine with Dr. John Ware of Boston, 
with whom he had a slight acquaintance. His medical 
studies gave him entrance to a group of students or 
young practitioners, men of the finest culture and re- 
finement, enthusiastic in their professional studies — Dr. 
Jacob Bigelow, Dr. William Sweetser, afterwards Pro- 
fessor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in Bowdoin 
College and others. With Dr. Ware and Dr. Sweetser he 
oame to have an intimate and affectionate friendship, 
which continued to the day of his death. Though these 
were all college trained, and Mr. Treadwell's schooling 
had been very slight, his brilliant natural gifts won in- 
stant recognition. 

A year and a half spent in his medical studies restored 
his health. He had become intensely interested in the 
study of the mechanism of the human frame. The pow- 
erful leverage secured by the attachment of the muscles 
to the limbs suggested to him a similar application of 
power in machinery. The beguilement of mechanical in- 
vention proved superior to the attraction of his new pro- 
fession. Selecting the printing press as a machine sus- 
ceptible of great improvement by a new application of the 
strength of the operator, he began a close study. 

The common printing press was the same which had 
been in use for many years, requiring a violent effort by 
the printer to force the type down by the strength of his 
arms upon the sheet of paper. By an ingenious applica- 
tion of levers, and the "toggle joint," the "knee joint" of 
the human frame, Mr. Treadwell produced a press in 
which the weight of the printer, operating upon a treadle, 
supplanted the laborious hand labor. Another device se- 
cured the printing on both sides without shifting the 
sheet. 

The press was set up in Boston, and did its work in 
very satisfactory fashion. Col. Benjamin Russell, an old 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 87 

Boston printer, and well known as the editor of the "Co- 
lumbian Centinel," was greatly interested, and used his 
influence to bring it into general use. Though greatly en- 
couraged by its favorable reception, Mr. Treadwell made 
no effort to further its adoption in his own country, but 
decided to attempt its introduction into England. 

He sailed for Liverpool on November 6th, 1819. Im- 
mediately upon his arrival he made arrangements for the 
construction of a press, and then indulged in a short tour 
in England and France. His letters to his friend Dr. 
Ware abound in piquant observations. "After all, Amer- 
ica, with her simple institutions, is the country for me. 
In this old and rotten world kings and lords strut about 
in bombastic pomp, as though it was made for them alone, 
and all the people were nothing." 

With characteristic American complacency, he makes 
bold to criticize the men he met, cherished institutions, 
and the government itself. 

I am quite disappointed in the English mechanicians. 
I find none among them men of enlarged, well-arranged 
minds, and I have had opportunities of seeing some of the 
most eminent. 

You have no doubt heard of the Society of Arts. It is, 
to be sure, a body too numerous to rank very high, but it 
is headed by the most popular of the royal Dukes, and is 
always spoken of as respectable at least. I have attended 
two or three of their meetings and was astonished at the 
trash and nonsense I heard. The English are before us 
in many things, but they owe this to other causes than 
their superior genius, as they insolently imagine. . . . 

It is astonishing to see the confidence which the Eng- 
lish have in their complicate and rickety old government. 
They say that its fall has been predicted every year for 
the last half century, and as it has not taken place yet, 
they do not believe that it ever will ; as well might a man 
of seventy hope to live ad infinitum because he has lived 
so long already. 

His press was completed in May, 1820, and he devoted 
the summer to an unsuccessful attempt to place it on the 
market. Its excellences were acknowledged, but the con- 



88 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

servatism of English methods was averse to novelties, 
however useful and promising. Though Mr. Treadwell 
assumed for the most part the role of a "Daniel come to 
judgment," he was quick to acknowledge inventions of 
approved merit. He was deeply interested in the steam 
cylinder press, which was then winning its way in Eng- 
land. He began at once to study improvements and soon 
after his return in September, 1820, he began the con- 
struction of a machine to print by power. 
He writes in his Autobiography: 

It was completed in about a year, being the first press 
by which a sheet of paper was printed on this continent 
by other than human power. All the operations except 
supplying and removing the sheets were automatic, de- 
rived from a rotary shaft worked by a horse. . . . 

There was not at that time, I believe, a single steam- 
engine at work in any shop or manufactory in the old 
peninsula of Boston, and but a single one at the foundry 
at South Boston. 

The prejudice which always attaches to any device, 
which substitutes a machine for hand labor, was manifest 
at once. Printers were not willing to adopt a power 
press. Thereupon, Mr. Treadwell, by the help of his 
constant friend, Gen. W. H. Sumner, and Mr. Redford 
Webster, purchased type, procured workmen, and con- 
tracted with book-sellers to print books. His innovation 
was made the more startling by his employment of wom- 
en and girls. Though the opposition of journeymen 
printers was violent, and his establishment was set on 
fire, as there was abundant reason to believe, and his 
presses damaged, he printed several books, which bore 
the imprint on the title-page, "Treadwell's Power Press." 
In the year 1822, an edition of the New Testament from 
stereotyped plates was printed upon this press. His suc- 
cess was such that one of the principal book-sellers of 
Boston purchased the establishment with the patent right 
for Massachusetts in the same year. 

The manufacturing of the power presses was contin- 
ued by Mr. Treadwell in his factory in Boston, as well as 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 89 

the steam engines by which they were operated. They 
were installed in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and 
Washington and were used wholly in book-work. The 
publications of the American Bible Society, the American 
Tract Society, and the Sunday School Society were all 
printed on these presses. It was first used for news- 
papers in 1829, in the printing of the Boston Daily Ad- 
vertiser, and was soon after adopted in New York for the 
same work. As the competition with other presses had 
become acute, and the newer styles were preferred to 
his, Mr. Treadwell, being engrossed in other pursuits, 
made no effort to improve his press, and gave up the 
business in 1829. Pecuniarily, the result of this inven- 
tion was very satisfying. By the sale of the presses, with 
the rights to use them, and the manufacture of the steam- 
engines, he had made a profit of some $70,000. 

While actively engaged in the building of printing 
presses, and the superintendence of the nail-factory on 
the Mill Dam, he found time for a variety of other pur- 
suits. He made a brief excursion into the field of editor- 
ship in 1822, when he became associated with Dr. Ware 
and Prof. J. W. Webster in the founding of "The Boston 
Journal of Philosophy and the Arts." Though a maga- 
zine of high merit, it failed to receive patronage and was 
discontinued in 1826. He succeeded in injecting fluids 
into dry timbers and endeavored to interest the Navy 
Department in the practicability of injecting preserva- 
tives into ship timbers to save them from decay. Nothing 
resulted from his experiments, but French engineers ap- 
plied the same method ten years later, and it is now a 
well-recognized and valuable process. 

The reputation of Daniel Treadwell for scholarly in- 
vestigation and high attainment in scientific knowledge 
brought him distinguished honor on November 12th, 
1823, when he was elected a Fellow of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences. In this select body of 
men of the finest ability, he made friends with all, but 
especially with Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch, the celebrated 
mathematician and navigator, then in the full maturity 



90 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

of his powers. This proved to be a life long attachment. 
Mr. Treadwell remained a member until his death. He 
was Recording Secretary from May, 1833 to May, 1839 ; 
Vice President from May 1852 to May, 1863 ; and a mem- 
ber of the Rumford Committee, the most important of 
the Standing Committees, from January, 1833 to May, 
1863. 

The Mayor of Boston, Hon. Josiah Quincy, appointed 
Mr. Treadwell, on March 11th, 1825, "a Commissioner to 
ascertain the practicability of supplying the city with 
good water for the domestic use of the inhabitants as 
well as for the extinguishing of fires, and for all the gen- 
eral purposes of comfort and cleanliness." The only wa- 
ter supply of the city was obtained at that time from 
wells, from rain-water collected in cisterns from the 
roofs of houses, and from Jamaica Pond through a wood- 
en pipe about four inches in diameter. He suggested 
several sources and a distributing system, in his report 
with full estimates of cost in November. The estimated 
expense, $500,000, was so large, that the project was 
dropped. 

The Boston Mechanics' Institution was founded in 
1826 for "the encouragement of a taste for the fine arts 
and the exact sciences among our operative mechanics 
and workingmen, as well as others." Dr. Bowditch was 
elected President, and Mr. Treadwell, the first of the 
three Vice-Presidents, in January, 1827. On the retire- 
ment of Dr. Bowditch in 1829, Mr. Treadwell succeeded 
him. He began a course of lectures in 1827 on practical 
subjects, especially the steam-engine, particularly adapt- 
ed to the needs of the workingmen of Boston. It was re- 
peated for several years with great success, the intro- 
ductory lecture being delivered by a man of commanding 
talent. Daniel Webster, Justice Joseph Story of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States, Edward Everett and 
other prominent men performed this service. 

Always abreast and generally ahead of every impor- 
tant movement for industrial advantage, Mr. Treadwell 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 91 

recognized at once the great potential value of the rail- 
ways, which were now being constructed. 

The first railway charter in Massachusetts was grant- 
ed on March 4th, 1826, to the Granite Railway Company 
for the transportation of granite from the quarries in 
Quincy to tide-water. Surveys for the Boston and Low- 
ell, Boston and Providence, and Boston and Albany were 
also in progress. On all these roads the horse was to be 
the motive power. This was the method already in use 
in England, and on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad in 
this country. A double track was considered absolutely 
necessary. Before that eventful year was ended, Mr. 
Treadwell had originated and worked out a plan of con- 
ducting traffic on a single track, by collecting the cars 
in trains, starting at fixed times, and meeting and pass- 
ing at determined points on turnouts. He published an 
account of his device in 1827, and in 1828, in public lec- 
tures exhibited a miniature railway, with trains operated 
in opposite directions and with different velocities. 

It seems incredible that his simple device, which has 
long since been adopted by railroads and trolley lines, 
and which has made possible the building of single line 
roads of continental length, was rejected as impractica- 
ble. Mr. Treadwell presented his single track plan at an 
early meeting of the Massachusetts Railroad Association, 
which was organized in the winter of 1829, and was ap- 
pointed, with two others, a Committee to report upon it. 
The report, "On the Practicability of Conducting Trans- 
portation on a single Set of Tracks," was written by him 
and presented in May, 1829. It is a classic in the annals 
of railway engineering. The ingenious but wholly im- 
aginary difficulties, which are considered and replied to, 
are of the same order as the famous objection to the pro- 
posed railroad with smooth rails and smooth self-pro- 
pelled driving wheels, that when the power was applied, 
the wheels would simply slip around on the rails and the 
train would stand still. 

The Board of Directors condemned his plan as imprac- 



92 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

ticable. Two members of the Board, however, dissented, 
Nathan Hale, editor of the Boston Daily Advertiser, and 
David Moody, an eminent mechanic. Mr. Hale was Pres- 
ident of the Boston and Worcester road, and that road 
was built on Mr. Treadwell's plan. Mr. Patrick T. Jack- 
son adopted it for the Lowell road, of which he was Pres- 
ident, and the Providence road was built in the same way. 
These roads were opened for travel in 1834. 

The great success of George Stephenson's 'Rocket' in 
the competitive trial of locomotives in England in 1829 
established steam as the motive power, and the steam 
locomotive was at once adopted here, and with it, Mr. 
Treadwell's plan of fixed times and regulated velocities. 

In June, 1851, Hon. Nathan Hale, in an article on 
American Railroads in the Boston Daily Advertiser, of 
which he was still editor, compared them with the rail- 
roads in England. He pointed out the far more profit- 
able return to the stockholders in this country, notwith- 
standing the far smaller population in proportion to 
territory, and with less than a fifth of the number of pas- 
sengers per mile conveyed on the principal lines. He at- 
tributed the success of the American roads primarily to 
the adoption of the single track, "on all routes on which 
the amount of travel and business is insufficient for the 
support of a double track." 

In the outset, as no such thing as a railroad with a 
single track for public use had been named in England, 
it was naturally imagined that double railroads would be 
essential to the success of any enterprise of the kind ; but 
at an early period a gentleman, then of this city, to whose 
mechanical genius the public are indebted for a number 
of important improvements, and who since that period 
for many years filled with distinction the office of Rum- 
ford Professor in Harvard University (we allude to Mr. 
Daniel Tread well now of Cambridge), first suggested the 
idea that a railroad for public accommodation might be 
constructed with a single track. 

In 1828 Mr. Treadwell was appointed a member of the 
Board of Visitors at West Point, but the multiplicity of 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 93 

his engagements made it impossible for him to accept. 
In the following year, and in 1830, he delivered a short 
course of lectures at Harvard University on the steam 
engine, railways, road-construction, etc. The University 
conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of 
Arts in 1829: "Virum Clarissimum Danielem Treadwell 
doctrina et artibus liberalibus omnibusque generosi ani- 
mi affectibus imbutum." 

Ever casting about for new devices to lighten hand 
labor and facilitate and cheapen production, he had made 
a study of rope-making, still performed almost exclu- 
sively by hand labor or by very crude machinery, and in 
1828, he completed a machine, confessedly imperfect, 
for spinning hemp for rope making. He spent the great- 
est part of his time for the next seven years upon inven- 
tions that formed the subjects of five different operations 
and included patents for preparing and spinning the 
hemp and tarring the yarn. "These processes," he says, 
"which had been performed entirely by hand, were by 
my inventions transferred to automatic machines, with 
a vast saving in the cost of production and improvement 
in quality of manufacture." 

His machine, which he called the "Gypsey," achieved 
immediate success. A spinning company was organized, 
a factory was built on the Mill Dam in 1832, and in 1833, 
the original company was merged in a larger corpora- 
tion, the Boston Hemp Manufacturing Company, which 
carried on the work of making cordage about thirty 
years. Machines were installed in the Charlestown Navy 
Yard, and better rope was produced at half the cost. The 
rope-makers made strenuous opposition. Eventually four 
spinners from a neighboring rope walk made an applica- 
tion to be allowed to make a piece of rope in competition 
with the machine. The result was that the machine spun 
rope sustained a breaking strain of 1,469 pounds, the 
hand-spun breaking with a weight of 1,278 pounds. The 
cost of the hand-spinning was proved to be $29.25 per 
ton of hemp, the machine, $14.13. 



94 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

The "Gypsey" attained world wide use, and has been 
ranked with Arkwright's spinning frame in perfection 
and utility, and as excelling it in ingenuity. The rope 
made by the Government for the Centennial Exhibition 
in Philadelphia in 1876 was spun upon the machines in 
the Navy Yard at Charlestown and was exhibited as the 
best rope then made. Seventy-six of them were still in 
daily use in 1887, more than fifty years after they were 
built. 

"In 1831," he records in his Autobiography, "being 
then in my fortieth year, I married Miss Adeline Lincoln, 
a daughter of Dr. Levi Lincoln of Hingham. She has 
been my faithful and devoted companion to the present 
time (1854) and I trust will be preserved to me to my 
end." His wish was gratified. Though she was thirteen 
years younger than her husband, their married life, 
though unblessed with children, was ideally affectionate 
and congenial. 

From a neglected, motherless childhood, and a youth 
untaught in the schools, to a Professorship in Harvard 
University was a great stride. But this honor came to 
Mr. Treadwell in 1834, unsought but well deserved. By 
the will of Count Rumford a Professorship was endowed, 
the function of which was to teach, "by regular courses 
of academical and public lectures accompanied with 
proper experiments, the utilfty of the physical and math- 
ematical sciences for the improvement of the useful arts 
and for the extension of the industry, prosperity, happi- 
ness and well-being of society." His somewhat impos- 
ing title was, the "Rumford Professor and Lecturer on 
the Application of the Sciences to the Useful Arts." 

It may be believed that there was no man in the country 
so well fitted as he for this high position by his remark- 
able series of useful inventions, his enthusiasm for scien- 
tific research, and the fine culture, derived from a deep 
love of the best literature, and intimate companionship 
with men of education and refinement. Had the acceptance 
of the office involved cloistered seclusion in Cambridge, 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 95 

and confinement to a stereotyped round of teaching and 
study, it would have been an unwise change of life for 
a man of such active temperament. But the service re- 
quired was only the annual delivery of about forty lec- 
tures on the philosophy of the Arts, particularly those of 
practical importance in the business of life, two or more 
a week; the Corporation was ready to expend about five 
thousand dollars from the Rumford Fund in procuring 
an apparatus and collection of models of machinery ; his 
ample private means rendered him independent of the 
meagre salary of eight hundred dollars; and although it 
was necessary that his residence should be in Cambridge, 
it was understood that in view of his receiving a salary 
less than the usual rate, he should have leave of ab- 
sence when not engaged in lecturing, for the purpose of 
attending to engineering, or any branch of industry the 
pursuit of which would enable him to render his lectures 
more immediately practical and instructive. After ma- 
ture deliberation he accepted the appointment. 

To secure proper apparatus and fit himself more fully 
for his new work, he sailed for England in March, 1835. 
His letters, written during this period, are of great in- 
terest. He was fifteen years older than he was when he 
visited England for the first time. Comparing his letters 
of the former period with these, his growth in breadth of 
mind and maturity of judgment, his mental poise and 
balance, are agreeably manifest. Then he sat in judg- 
ment upon scholars, institutions, the nation itself. Now he 
sits admiringly at the feet of Faraday, Lardner, Richie 
and other lecturers at the Royal Institutions. He is 
amazed at Prof. Faraday's brilliant lecture on Sound, 
extemporized at a few hours* notice. He is greatly im- 
pressed with Babbage's calculating machine. Though he 
declared himself far more interested in iron-works and 
cotton-mills, than in water-falls, landscapes and pictures, 
and sought the society of engineers and scientists, he ad- 
mits that he found great pleasure in the scenery of the 
Highlands ; he found time for a visit to Abbotsford, and 



96 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

at Stratford-on-Avon, where a five minute glance between 
the changes of horses satisfied him before, he spent sev- 
eral quiet hours. 

Returning from England m the autumn of 1835, he be- 
gan at once active preparation for his lectures. The work 
was congenial, and in line with earlier experiences, and 
his lectures on machines, the steam engine, water-wheels, 
railways, cotton-spinning and weaving were received 
with great favor. They were characterized by clearness, 
precision, facility in illustrations and experiments, and 
by fine literary finish. 

Professor Treadwell's comment on the ten years he 
devoted to this educational work, indicates that he adapt- 
ed himself easily to his new sphere. 

I accepted this place rather against my inclinations, 
and with the suspicion that I was not exactly suited to 
it. I was a stranger to college life, its associations, cus- 
toms, and traditions, unacquainted with some branches 
of learning, especially the ancient languages that form, 
and I believe very properly, a principal part of college 
study. But the courtesy and kindness of the Professors 
soon relieved me in a degree from the disagreements of 
my false position. Those whom I had not known, now be- 
came my friends, and I found myself in a Society more 
exclusively intelligent and gentlemanly than I had ever 
been connected with before. 

He resigned his professorship in 1845. While in of- 
fice, he was constantly engaged in other activities. In 
1835 and 1836, he served as Chairman of a Commission 
to examine and determine the accuracy of the standard 
weights and measures of the Commonwealth. The year 
1837 abounded in public services of the first magnitude. 
In March, he was again chosen Chairman of the Board 
of Commissioners to re-examine the sources and the best 
method of providing the city with pure water. Twenty 
sources were examined, including Lake Cochituate, Spot 
Pond, Mystic Pond and the Charles River. The examina- 
tions and recommendations of this Commission were not 
adopted at the time, but proved of great value in the 
final construction of the water works in 1848. 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 97 

In the same year Professor Treadwell was solicited to 
take charge of the great work of laying out the Amoskeag 
Mills, building canals, erecting factory buildings and 
opening the great industry. This he declined, as demand- 
ing more time and labor than could be spared from his 
work at Cambridge. 

Gore Hall, the new library building at Harvard, was 
about being built. The Corporation regarded the safe- 
guarding of the library from destruction by fire, a matter 
of the highest importance. To solve this problem, the 
Corporation, by vote of January 19th, 1837, "requested 
Professor Treadwell to superintend the erection of the 
new library, with such assistance as he may require, a lib- 
eral compensation being allowed for his services." He 
not only devised a successful method of heating by steam, 
then used only in factories, but as the result of studies 
in building material, rejected the stone originally selected, 
and substituted granite from a Quincy quarry. He be- 
came convinced that in following the plan of King's Col- 
lege Chapel, the architect had erred in his calculations of 
the height of the towers, proportionate to the smaller size 
of the library. The architect and every member of the 
building committee were unconvinced, and the towers 
were built according to the original plans. When com- 
pleted, the disproportion was obvious, and some years 
after they were shortened eight or ten feet. 

Unconsciously to himself, Professor Treadwell had now 
come to the parting of the ways. Hitherto he had de- 
voted himself with splendid abandon to furthering the 
arts of peace, the improvement of methods of manufac- 
ture, the development of the railway, the planning of 
water-works, the instruction of students and workmen 
in the useful arts. His printing press, his "Gypsey" rope- 
machine, his steam-engines, were noble contributions to 
human welfare. From the day he hammered out his first 
cup in the shop of the silver-smith, he had been an in- 
genious and active agent in advancing the comfort, the 
well-being and happiness of men. Now in the meridian 
of his powers, this lover of peace and friend of honest 



98 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

toil, led by some strange perversity, turned to the devis- 
ing of a weapon of destruction, the great implement of 
war, and the prolific source of human misery. Although 
our country was at peace with all the nations of the 
world, he became greatly interested in the construction 
of an improved cannon. As early as 1841, he had filed a 
caveat, which described a method of building up a series 
of steel rings, welded together, and reinforced by bands. 
He received a contract for four small cannon from the 
Government in 1842. Sanguine of success in the manu- 
facture of cannon of any size, he had already built a fac- 
tory and furnaces at the Mill Dam. Having secured his 
contract, he organized the "Steel Cannon Company." Un- 
foreseen and exasperating difficulties and delays were 
met. "After about a year and a half," he says in his Au- 
tobiography, "of most devoted and exhausting labor and a 
very large outlay of money, I completed the six six- 
pounders to my satisfaction." 

The cannon were delivered to the Government, proved 
by firing heavy charges, seemed to be incapable of burst- 
ing, but failed of only moderate approval by the author- 
ities. It was urged that their extreme recoil made it im- 
possible to use them on ship-board. The inventor replied 
by devising a gun carriage, which would absorb the re- 
coil. But this was rejected as impracticable. The toil 
and anxiety due largely to this disappointing invention 
exhausted his strength, and led to his resignation of his 
professorship in 1845, as the task from which he could 
most easily escape. 

The Mexican War began in June, 1845, but the Ord- 
nance Department manifested no interest in his inven- 
tion. Though a bill was reported to Congress in 1846, 
recommending the armament of some iron war steamers 
with Treadwell's wrought iron guns of at least twelve 
inch calibre, it failed of passage. 

A voyage to England and France and conferences with 
the War Departments met with like failure. The build- 
ings, erected by the Cannon Company in Brighton, were 
never occupied for the purpose intended, nor for any pur- 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 99 

pose, except for a short time in 1848 as barracks for the 
volunteer soldiers of Massachusetts returning from the 
Mexican War. The machinery and tools, together with 
the buildings, were sold in 1855, the land in 1864, and 
the whole project ended with large loss to the Company. 
It was the most ambitious of Prof. Treadwell's ventures, 
and the most disappointing from the outset. It entailed 
a bitterness of soul, from which he never recovered. He 
wrote years afterward : 

Although my cannon of 1845 was a complete success 
in all that related to its construction, it was an utter fail- 
ure as regards its adoption by the Government. That it 
was successful as a construction, I have only to say that 
Sir W. Armstrong, twelve years after I was obliged to 
abandon it, and after learning, as I fully believe, the 
method by which I produced it, formed his rifle cannon 
upon the same plan, and I defy him now, with the whole 
patronage of the British government, to produce a more 
perfect gun so far as strength, soundness and finish are 
concerned, than I produced seventeen years ago by pri- 
vate means alone. I limit my boast to the above enumer- 
ated particulars, for as to Armstrong's inventions in rifl- 
ing and breech-loading he deserves in my opinion, much 
credit for them, and I hope I shall be the last man to deny 
to another all that belongs to him. 

The outbreak of the Civil War roused the hope, that at 
last the hour of success was at hand. In April, 1862, the 
State of Massachusetts was in need of guns for coast de- 
fense and applied to Prof. Treadwell to make them. A 
Commission was appointed and he agreed to manufac- 
ture one hundred large guns. The Commission and a 
Joint Committee of the Legislature reported favorably 
and recommended an appropriation. The appropriation 
was defeated in the Senate at its last reading on the last 
night of the session by a single vote, 18 to 17. Gov. John 
A. Andrew wrote the Secretary of War on May 7, 1862, 
invoking the attention of the National Government to this 
gun. "It was my intention," he continued, "to have 
caused the manufacture of a quantity of the "Treadwell 
Gun" under a resolve of the Legislature of Massachu- 



100 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

setts; but by some misunderstanding, the appropriation 
failed in the Senate on the last night of the session, al- 
though a resolve authorizing me to spend half a million 
of dollars for the purpose had passed with no serious op- 
position." 

The Ordnance Department considered Prof. Tread- 
well's proposition, but decided it was inexpedient to make 
a contract for so large an amount for an untried weapon. 
Writing to his friend, Phineas Dow, on February 5th, 
1865, he says : 

My lawsuit with Mr. Parrott has given me much labor 
and cost for the last three years. The testimony in this 
is now all taken and I shall in all probability obtain a trial 
in the coming March or April. My case seems to me and 
my lawyers a very strong one, but we cannot foresee the 
quirks of the law nor the caprices that may take the 
courts. . . . Should I fail in this suit, I shall at least es- 
tablish full proof to the world that all the most impor- 
tant improvements in cannon that have been made for the 
last twenty-five years have been derived from me, and 
most of them reduced to practise by me. 

Reverting to his life in Cambridge, Mrs. Treadwell 
wrote of their summers in most interesting fashion. Set- 
ting out in their "carryall," they drove about the country 
with no fixed plan, the Professor driving, Mrs. Treadwell 
reading aloud some interesting book, for hours at a time. 
Longer excursions took them to the Connecticut valley, 
and while returning from their holiday in 1843, they 
chanced upon "The Wayside Inn" in Sudbury. It proved 
so attractive and restful, that for four years afterward, 
until he went abroad, Professor Treadwell rarely missed 
spending Sunday there, driving out and back in the fam- 
ily carriage. For more than twenty years they spent 
their summers in this quiet retreat. Longfellow came 
often, and his poem, "The Wayside Inn," commemorates 
the brilliant group that gathered there. The poem is an 
idealized and unreal picture, in which Professor Tread- 
well figures as the theologian, but all were friends. Dr. 
Parsons, Monti and Professor Treadwell spent the whole 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 101 

summer there, passing most of the day in the fields and 
woods or in long walks. 

Winter brought the meetings of the Cambridge Scien- 
tific Club, for scientific, literary and social purposes. It 
was organized at the Treadwell home in November, 1842. 
It met twice a month in the houses of the members, and 
the member who entertained read a paper and provided 
a supper. Its membership was usually limited to twelve. 
No more brilliant company could have been assembled 
than that which gathered at these meetings, Louis Agas- 
siz, Francis Bowen, Edward Everett, Asa Gray, Benja- 
min Pierce, Jared Sparks. Prof. Treadwell read some 
twenty papers, chiefly on practical themes, in the course 
of the succeeding twenty years. William Ellery Channing, 
Thaddeus M. Harris, and Judge Fay were warm friends 
for many years. 

Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" was read by him 
with keen interest in 1860. Prof. Treadwell took part 
with his friend. Prof. Asa Gray, in a discussion on its 
bearing on theology and the argument from design, with 
an essay, "Is Darwin's Theory Atheistic or Pantheistic?" 

He was seventy years old when the Civil War began, 
and his auguries were gloomy. He wrote on July 29th, 
1861: 

This state of things was in my mind, brought on by the 
Abolitionists (and I look upon all, or almost all, the Re- 
publicans here in Massachusetts at least, as Abolitionists 
in substance) more than by the Carolinians. We threw 
the first stone at the Constitution. But mad, mad is the 
word for both sides, and by this the country is divided, 
and never to be joined again. Mr. Longfellow is recov- 
ering from his severe burns, but Cambridge yet shud- 
ders at the thought of the poor lady. 

Again, after the Mason and Slidell episode : 

I do not see any way out of it. The Union split in two, 
and the Constitution gone ! Alas for the great Republic ! 
I have known this thirty years that it must come, but it 
has come at last, "like a thief in the night," and after all 
taken me by surprise. But why should a man of seventy 



102 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

grieve for the few years that remain to him. Those that 
are coming forward in life will find some way to carry on 
the world that they will possess. 

In May, 1865, Professor Treadwell declined re-election 
as Vice-President of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
an office to which he had been chosen annually for thir- 
teen years. In November, the Academy awarded him the 
Rumford medals, in gold and silver, for his "Improve- 
ments in the Management of Heat." 

The religious belief of a keen and strong mind, which 
has always dealt with the laws of matter and the certain- 
ties of scientific research is a matter of profound interest. 
In his young manhood. Prof. Treadwell wrote to his 
friend. Dr. John Ware, from London, on May 3d, 1820: 

Your kind attention to my Faith deserves my gratitude. 
I consider the Christian's belief as of more value than 
anything else he can possess in this world ; but from the 
peculiar construction of my mind I sadly fear that it is a 
treasure not for me. I shall certainly read Butler's An- 
alogy, as you recommend. If I recollect rightly one of the 
Apostles, or some churchman, has said, "Lord, help my 
unbelief." Now if I could gain this by asking, I should 
ask loud and often. Still I hope that you do not put me 
down for an outright Deist, but merely a sceptic in re- 
ligion. I would believe because I admire the character of 
Jesus Christ, and, more than all, because I think the im- 
mortality of the soul cannot be proved by natural religion, 
and there is something inexpressibly cold and gloomy in 
the bare idea of annihilation. I could almost as comfort- 
ably think of going to Purgatory as being annihilated. 

The lapse of years brought no clearer light in this mys- 
terious realm. He wrote to his intimate friend. Dr. 
Sweetser, in October, 1846, twenty-six years later than 
the London letter : 

My health is better than it has been for some years, for 
which I most heartily thank God ; whether he knows or 
cares about the thanks of such an insignificant atom is 
another thing. As to his having made any special inter- 
position in my favor, I am not vain enough to believe it. 
But I have a feeling of gratitude that in the order of na- 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 103 

ture, in my own organization I seem to be attaining a 
more sound state of health. 

On looking over the above sentence, I doubt whether 
it is right, — whether my thanks or gratitude amount to 
anything like that deep feeling with which the heart is 
impressed toward another, who, we know, has labored for 
our benefit for the mere love of us. How difficult it is to 
read our own hearts, and how many, when they read their 
hearts aloud, read them falsely, although they suppose 
that God is hearing them ! 

We can read between the lines the working of a pro- 
foundly religious instinct, the almost involuntary and 
necessary acceptance of the Christian conception of God, 
the impulsive expression of gratitude to Him for the 
blessings of life, the sincere self -questioning as to whether 
the thanksgiving that sprang up spontaneously from the 
depths of his spiritual life had the reality of the grati- 
tude we feel to those, whose love for us is revealed in ma- 
terial benefits. But for a full half century he had been in 
close contact with the exact and irresistible laws of Na- 
ture, by close inductive reasoning he had advanced from 
the known to the unknown or unrecognized ways of ap- 
plying the forces of Nature ; he had mastered mysteries, 
he had discovered secrets, he had harnessed material 
Force to his machines, but in the purely spiritual realm, 
he found mysteries he could not solve, a force he could 
not define or measure, a Being superior to human com- 
prehension ever revealing yet ever hiding itself. 

Twenty-two more years, and now in old age, in his 
seventy-eighth year, but with mind untouched by bodily 
infirmity, he wrote again to Dr. Sweetser, on November 
4th, 1868 : 

I congratulate you also on the philosophical quiet of 
your mind, by which you wait the doom of inexorable na- 
ture. How much I should like to talk with you, as we did 
formerly, upon this subject, and its collateral Pantheism, 
and the probability of an actual though immaterial exis- 
tence after this mortal life. But however much I should 
like to compare present thoughts and conclusions with 
you by the 'living voice,' I find myself altogether unable 



104 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

to write about it. Doubt, doubt and still doubt. But all 
gravitating to the theory of development from simple at- 
tributes, properties or tendencies, inherent in matter, of 
the origin of which we can form no conception. The 
legitimate tendency of all this is, as it seems to me, the re- 
ception of Darwin's idea of the law of 'natural selection 
under the struggle of life,' and thus (the order or laws of 
nature being established of necessity) it becomes possible 
to conceive of the formation of both the material and of 
the organic or living world without design. Who that 
shall receive this conception as true, — and it seems to me 
that the whole tendency of the scientific discovery of the 
age is toward this theory of development — who, I say, 
that shall receive this will not find his mind sooner or 
later lean to the conclusion that man, or the human mind, 
is the highest self-conscious intelligence (or intellectual 
power) in the universe? . . . 

His own mournfully repeated, "Doubt, doubt, and still 
doubt," was the sufficient answer to his own query. He 
could not be satisfied with the ultimate concept of a mater- 
ial universe, created, continued, ruled without design, and 
the mind of man "the insignificant atom," as he conceived 
himself to be, the highest self-conscious intelligence 

His last years were spent quietly in his home at Cam- 
bridge within easy reach of the Harvard Observatory, of 
which his friend. Professor Joseph Winlock was Director, 
the Botanic Garden, presided over by Dr. Asa Gray, his 
intimate and beloved friend, the Harvard Library, and 
many homes, where he was always a welcome guest. 

"Time passes quietly," he wrote to Dr. Sweetser, "but 
I cannot say that it goes happily. The want of success in 
my gun leaves a mark which it will be hard to rub out." 

And yet he chose to keep three of the cannon of his 
manufacture on the grounds about his dwelling, a con- 
stant irritant of that old sore. How melancholy a spec- 
tacle of the utter incapacity of his strong, well-balanced 
mind, "the highest self-conscious intelligence in the uni- 
verse," to master itself and attain serene peace of mind, 
unruffled by the failures of life! 

He died on February 26th, 1872, in the eighty-first 
year of his age. The tribute of Dr. Sweetser is sufficient 
eulogy : 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 105 

I became acquainted with him, to the best of my re- 
membrance, when a medical student, about the year 1816. 
I knew him as a profound thinker, close reasoner, a kind 
friend, noble, true and generous in all his impulses. He 
was critical by nature, but he always aimed at what he 
believed to be truth and justice. For no advantage would 
he deviate one jot from what he viewed the right and hon- 
orable path. Like others, he was ambitious, but his am- 
bition was of the worthiest character. The closer our in- 
timacy with him, the higher did we esteem him. Though 
he might sometimes appear cold and reserved to a strang- 
er, yet to his friends he was ever free and warm-hearted. 
At that early period, we, his friends, held him in high es- 
teem and respect for his great scientific attainments, and 
his intellectual superiority, which we did not hesitate to 
acknowledge. I became greatly attached to him at that 
time, and that attachment has never met with any inter- 
ruption. ... No one could surpass him for the strict 
justice of his character. Truth seemed a part of his na- 
ture. ... He lived to more than the common age allot- 
ted to man, and died honored and respected, without a blot 
on the purity of his character. 

For many years before his death. Professor Treadwell 
had cherished the plan of establishing and endowing a 
free public library in Ipswich. He purchased, as the site 
of the proposed building, the lot on the corner of South 
Main and Elm Streets, now occupied by the Savings Bank 
on August 7th, 1860. In his Will, drawn on November 
7th, 1863, after bequests to his wife, and nephew. Dr. 
Sweetser and Dr. Parsons, he further devised : 

I give, devise and bequeath to my native Town of Ips- 
wich ... all my real estate situated in the said Town, 
to have and to hold the same forever — the income where- 
of, together with the sum of Four Thousand dollars, 
which I hereby give and bequeath to the said Town for 
the same purpose, shall be appropriated by the said Town 
for the purpose of founding a library, to contain a collec- 
tion of the standard works of the best authors, Ancient 
and Modern, but to the exclusion of the cheap literature 
and party newspapers of the day, for the use of the Inhab- 
itants of Ipswich and the neighboring towns. 

And it is my wish that the building for the said Libra- 
ry shall be erected upon the land purchased by me near 



106 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

"the Stone Bridge," a few years since, that it shall be 
made fireproof, and used exclusively for the purposes of a 
Library. 

He directed that his books should be given to the li- 
brary, except such as his wife may prefer to keep or give 
away as mementos. 

It is also my will that my wife shall have and use all 
my pictures, but that at her decease, five of the copies in 
oil of pictures of famous Italian Painters shall be given 
to the Town of Ipswich to be placed in the Library above 
provided for. 

And I further desire that all my papers and manu- 
scripts not necessary for the settlement of my estate shall 
be deposited in the said Library in the Town of Ipswich. 

At the decease of his wife, he instructed his executors 
to divide the residue of his estate into five equal parts, 
which should be distributed to Harvard College, for the 
use of the library, the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences, the Boston Athenaeum, the Boston Public Li- 
brary and the Town of Ipswich for the library. He ex- 
pressed the desire that the Trustees of the Boston Pub- 
lic Library should visit and inspect the Ipswich Library, 
and its accounts of the estate, real and personal, to see 
whether the plan of the founder was being realized. He 
authorized his executors to continue any existing law suit, 
or institute a new suit for the establishment of his rights 
connected with his improvement in cannon. 

Prof. Treadwell's bequest for a Public Library in Ips- 
wich would have been wholly inadequate to accomplish 
his purpose. Fortunately for the Town, Augustine Heard 
Esq., as already stated, now planned the same gift. . . . 

The lot occupied by the old Moses Treadwell home- 
stead was secured in July, 1865, and, after the build- 
ings had been removed, Mr. Heard erected the excellent 
library building and installed a library. It was a keen 
disappointment to Prof. Treadwell no doubt, that his long 
cherished plan was thus anticipated, but he adjusted him- 
self wisely to the new situation. After consultation with 



AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 107 

the Trustees, who held the Augustine Heard trust, he add- 
ed a codicil to his will, by which the original bequest was 
withdrawn, and his legacy added to the endowment al- 
ready provided. 



CODICIL TO WILL OF PROF. TREADWELL. 

Whereas in my said will I made certain devises and be- 
quests to the town of Ipswich for the establishment, erec- 
tion and endowment of a free public library in said town, 
and said devises and bequests and some of my directions 
in said will in regard to them have been superseded or 
rendered inexpedient by the erection of a building for 
such a library by my friend the late Augustine Heard, 
which building with the books and funds given by him 
for the endowment of said library he has placed in the 
charge of Trustees ; — and prefering as I do to co-operate 
with what he has done for the establishment and support 
of such an institution in our native town rather than to 
require or authorize another institution of similar char- 
acter in said town : 

Therefore to the end that what I had in said will pro- 
posed giving to said Town for the establishment of a free 
public library therein may be most usefully, economically 
and harmoniously applied to such purpose and for the 
greater advantage of the community, for whose benefit 
said bequests were intended, I do hereby revoke and an- 
nul all the devises and bequests in my said will made to 
the town of Ipswich for the establishment, erection, en- 
dowment and support of a public library therein. 

And I hereby give and devise all the lands and real es- 
tate and all the books, pictures, sums of money and other 
things mentioned in said revoked devises and bequests, to 
a board of Trustees, which shall consist of the trustees 
of the present public library in said town, together with 
the Pastor of the First Parish and the Master of 
the Grammar School in said town, and of their succes- 
sors in said offices: said trustees to have and hold the 



108 AUGUSTINE HEARD AND HIS FRIENDS 

same in trust for the further endowment and support of 
a free public library in the town of Ipswich. 

* >|c * 

And they are to manage, dispose of and apply said 
property and lands and the income thereof for the sup- 
port, increase and extension of said library. 

June 26, 1869. 

Mr. George Haskell, the Treasurer of the Treadwell 
Fund, resigned his office as Trustee and Treasurer in Au- 
gust, 1894. He made a financial statement to the Trus- 
tees at that time, which showed that the Library had re- 
ceived from Prof. Treadwell's estate : 
The legacy in money $4,000 00 

Proceeds of the sale of pasture land 3,702 84 

Proceeds of the sale of the house and lot he 

bought for a library site 2,950 00 

One fifth of the residue, in stocks 5,579 00 

Cash at various times from the Executor 6,453 09 



$22,684 93 

The Treadwell fund, with the balance of accrued inter- 
est, was then $31,547.28. 

The Library had also received from the estate: 

300 volumes from his private library, 2 boxes of draw- 
ings, manuscripts and other papers, 4 paintings, copies 
in oil, a silver porringer, 2 silver teaspoons and a por- 
trait of the donor. The Rumford medals have since come 
into the possession of the Library. 

From the beginning the income of the Treadwell fund 
has been appropriated chiefly for the purchase of books. 
Thus the benevolent design of Prof. Treadwell has been 
accomplished in a larger degree than would have been 
possible had his original plan been carried out. 



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